Legend of Dragoon: The Moonless Child
by TheJadeDragon37
Summary: It's been 3500 years since Dart and his friends prevented the world's destruction. However, the God of Destruction wasn't destroyed. Its power found a host and it has incubated inside various people throughout the ages passing down from parent to child. Now that it has enough power its new host has to fight to survive as it is hunted by both a Kingdom and the new Dragoons.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: **I don't own either Legend of Dragoon or Dissidia: Final Fantasy.

**(A/N):** Alright had an idea for another story and due to a certain someone being so hyped for it, I figured I'd write the first chapter and post rather than write it and hold on to it. There wasn't room in the summary so I'm telling you now. THIS IS AN OC FOCUSED STORY. With characters from Final Fantasy. The lore and world is mostly Legend of Dragoon though with random things from Final Fantasy thrown in for good measure. Monsters from both games will be appearing so no saying Flans or something didn't exist in Endiness.

Disc 1: The Unholy Kingdom

Chapter I

In the snowy city of Narshe a little girl of six with wavy blonde hair ran through the streets after her friends. Her parents had bundled her in thick red pants with a poofy red coat, which she unzipped revealing a white shirt underneath. She was "it" and just had to catch and tag one of her friends, it was the only thing that mattered in her mind at the moment. Narshe was a mining town, able to produce a vast amount of magicite for the Kingdom of Dalmasca. Thanks to the large magicite mine Narshe was able to live prosperously. Traveling merchants would always stop by to refill their stock of the common magical item while selling the citizens of the town food supplies. To the kids playing hide-and-seek, that didn't matter to them, they were too busy having fun. They knew that back at their home was a warm drink and an even warmer hug from their parents. For the group of seven children all that mattered was having fun and making sure to stay out of the grown-ups way so as to not get yelled at.

Taking a look down an alleyway the little girl spotted one of her friend's blue hood sticking up of the top of the crates. Violet eyes honed in on the fur lined hood and the little girl walked as quietly as should could over the snow trying not to make it crunch under her weight. Just as she was about to round the corner and tag her friend, no longer being "it" and have her turn at hiding, her foot shifted causing her to slip and start falling to the ground. Subconsciously the little girl reached for her magic power blasted a bit of wind magic at the ground softening her landing. Scrambling up as fast as she could, unaffected from her fall, she looked around for her friend and spotted him running out of the alley. A childish grin came over the girls face and she chased after the boy. Coming out to the busy streets near the mine the little girl tried her best to run after her friend that was dodging through the crowd with ease. Even with her petite frame she had a harder time trying to get through without bumping into anyone carrying a large crate or pushing a heavy cart.

Finally after what felt like hours the little girl was able to catch up to the boy and tapped him on the shoulder. With a moan the little boy smiled at his friend, she had caught him far and square and now it was his turn. While the boy counted to ten as per the laws of the game the little girl ran off in search of a hiding spot. Ducking through alleyways and past people she found a spot between the inn and general shop. A light giggle leaves the girl. Happy with her hiding spot she bunkers down between the two buildings, it was a tight fit but she was able to squeeze in.

As she waited in the spot between the two buildings she felt the air around her heat up. Snow on the ground started to melt into water quickly turning into steam. Behind the girl flames started to lick the wood of the inn. At both ends of her hiding spot flames blocked her path. She was trapped between the flaming inn and the general store that had still yet to catch fire. In only a matter of seconds the inn was consumed in flicking fire. Out of the fire came a small creature no larger than the little girl, in fact they were the same height. Lavender fur covered its body the tips of the fur black, its eyes a blood red color. It walked on two legs like a human but had an animalistic look in its eyes. A look that called for blood and destruction. The creature's fur was un-singed by the fire, the thing itself seemed uncaring that it was walking through fire. Claws that looked sharp enough to tear through metal dripped with crimson blood. Pulling back its fist the creature punched through the few fallen boards of the inn and pulled out a charred body of some unfortunate soul. Whoever the person was, they were still alive and in suffering. A grin spread across the creatures face as it dragged on of the sharp claws down the torso of the burnt human. The little girl tried to cover her ears to stop the noise but she couldn't move her arms. She was forced to listen to the cries of pain coming from the injured person as the creature played with its new toy. All around her the girl could hear new screams of pain call out to the moonless night sky. Terra started to scream in unison with the voices around her, the only way to stop the sounds of the others. A loud laughter rang out amongst all the cries of pain; the creature was enjoying listening to the sounds that echoed against the mountain walls

* * *

Terra woke up drenched in sweat clutching her blanket close to her small frame. It was as if she had actually been there stuck between the flames and building watching the horrible creature start to torture that poor person. Getting out of her bed she tried to look around the dark room for the door, she needed to get out of the room and feel the cold night air against her skin. Stumbling over a dark blob on the ground that let out a soft growl, the family's dog, Terra finally found the door. Walking briskly down the starlit hallway Terra made her way outside. Seeing the sky with all its stars and a full moon hanging high in the sky Terra felt a sense of calm wash over her. A small sea breeze caressed Terra's red sundress, goose bumps appearing on her unprotected legs. Sitting down on the porch Terra looked up at the night sky.

For the past two weeks she had been having that dream every night. She was starting to dread sleep knowing that the nightmare was just going to haunt her causing her to wake up covered in sweat. Narshe, her hometown, had been destroyed in one night like in her dream. Flames had taken over the city and burned through the wooden structures. Terra knew that a monster of some sorts had been the cause. She had gone back three years ago, on her sixteenth birthday, to see what was left of the town. Even then ten years later, the town had scorch marks from where the buildings had once stood. Any house made out of metal had claw marks on it, the metal was either melted like the snow in her dream or had been torn open. Terra could only wonder if the creature from her dream was truly the one responsible for the massacre or if she was just making up an answer in her sleep for the destruction of everything she had once held dear.

Sadly Terra had been the only one to survive that day Narshe was destroyed. She didn't know how it had happened, maybe her father had used his magic to teleport her, but she had been spared the destruction. All she could remember of that night was going to bed after having her mother tell her about the legendary Dragoons that had saved the world from the 108th race born of the Divine Tree. Seven warriors with the power dragons had put a stop to the Virage Embryo. When she had awoken Terra had found herself in an open field miles away from her hometown. If it wasn't for a few merchants that had just come from Narshe passing along the road she surely would have perished out in the wild. Ever since that day Terra had been traveling, trying not to stay in one place for very long. Whenever she seemed to stay in one place for too long, the town or village would seem to meet an end similar to Narshe's. Fire and claws would destroy the town during the night and Terra would find herself far away from the town come morning. Each time Terra wondered what was causing the destruction of each town. She knew that it had something to do with her, maybe that creature she saw in her dream was real and it was messing with her, attacking each town she stayed in and tossing her out into the wild to watch her cry and move on to the next place. Why though, why would the monster do that? For what reason would she be spared when the rest of the people were killed? There had to be some connection between her and the monster but she didn't know what it was.

Pulling her legs up to her chest Terra sat and wondered how far away was the monster from her now? Was it watching her sit on the porch and look up at the night sky, plotting how best to turn this town into ash like it had done to numerous others? The people she was currently staying with had treated her so kindly. They had found her washed up on the shore three days ago. Knowing the pattern that had developed over the past thirteen years there was no doubt in Terra's mind that the last town she had visited was now a crater in the ground. It always happened during the night when she was asleep. One might think Terra would come to fear the night but the solitude and quiet of the dark hours brought her peace. There was no one to pester her about where she had come from, why she had washed up on shore, why was she traveling alone, or any number of questions that she couldn't or wouldn't answer. Tears fell down from soft violet eyes as she thought about all the destruction that had happened seemingly because of her. She had already spent three days in this town; it was time for her to get going if she didn't want to have this peaceful fishing town on the edge of the sea to suffer. Tomorrow she would have to steal some supplies and leave, all her gold was gone the only thing that had stayed with her this time had been the dress she was wearing and a rapier sitting back in the room. No matter what that sword had always stayed with her when she woke up in a field. Her other belongs may or may not be with her, it seemed that the farther away she was from a town the more belongs she kept. This just served further her idea that the creature was real and playing with her.

_What am I going to do? _ Terra thought to herself. _I haven't heard of a creature like the one I keep seeing in my dream. Running from town to town in hopes that it doesn't find me isn't working. I don't know what else to do though. _

Feelings of uncertainty plagued the teenage blonde as she continued to watch the stars. As she stared up at the night sky she felt something soft and furry nestle up against her hand. Terra jumped in fright thinking that it could be the creature. Her fears were eased when she saw that it was just the family's chocolate lab. It wanted attention and Terra was more than happy to give it to the old dog. His fur had a few clumps from where the sand had hardened so Terra set about trying to get them out while she gave the happy dog the attention he wanted.

"Didn't we just give you a bath yesterday?" Terra asked sweetly as she ran her finger through the short fur coming across another clump. Her answer was the dog cocking its head to the side as if confused by her question. It opened its mouth and started panting happily while Terra's delicate hands moved across its back. Smiling at how the dog reacted Terra used a small amount of her magic to make water come out of her hand so while she was petting the dog he would be getting somewhat cleaner. Not that it mattered if he managed to get this dirty in a single day. The two kids had scrubbed the dog so much yesterday that Terra was sure he'd have bald spots when they were done. "Come on boy I think its time we both go back to bed," Terra told the lab as she hugged him and dried him off with a weak fire spell so he wouldn't be soaking wet when they went back inside.

Making her way back into the house Terra took the first door on the right in the hallway letting the dog follow her in. He had grown attached to her in the short time she had spent in the village and she was sad that she was going to be leaving him behind tomorrow. Her eyes having fully adjusted to the dark of night Terra had no problems making her way to the bed and climbing back under the covers. Come morning she would have to think up a way to tell the kind people that she was leaving. They had taken her in and gave her warm meals and a bed to sleep in. She couldn't up and vanish from their lives.

-o-O-o-

A young man in his early twenties sat atop a chestnut brown horse as it walked down a forest road. He had shoulder-length spiky brown hair though you could hardly see it under his grey helmet. Brown eyes flitted back and forth watching for any signs of the creatures that inhabited the surrounding area. Monsters were a common problem that the young man was used to dealing with. White gloveless hands loosely held onto the horse's reins. The young man didn't need the reins, he had trained his horse well enough that it would listen to him using different tells with his legs. As the horse meandered down the trail metallic sounds could be heard as its rider's armor clanked together. The young man was hunting a dangerous creature and needed to be ready for when he found it. His grey armor was standard issue with a black cape held on by gold clasps, the mark of a Captain in the Gestaltian Kingdom's army. The sheath of a longsword was attached to the saddle of the horse, the hilt of the blade within easy grasp of the soldier. Like his armor the sword was just another item handed out to the soldiers meant to be cheap to replace should it get broken.

Following behind the captain was a small group of twenty-five men each in full armor like their leader. They had been sent into the forest in an attempt to locate a young woman. Not a one of them knew why the King had ordered them to find the girl only that it meant an early retirement for the squad. Their King had promised that whatever team managed to locate and capture the girl would be able to live their lives comfortably without ever having to work another day. This had whipped all the squads into a frenzy as they got their sectors assigned to them. All they really knew was that the target was located in the east. She is a blonde haired girl with odd colored eyes and looked to be about nineteen. What the King wanted with the girl was still a mystery and it didn't sit well with the young captain that he was capturing a person with no given reason. If it wasn't for the sake of his men being able to leave the army early he probably would have passed on the hunt, but they needed their captain to be seen as a squad and not just a band of soldiers. It had been made clear that only a _full _team would gain the reward to discourage soldiers going off on their own. Whoever this girl was she was supposedly extremely dangerous and could use magic.

Magic wasn't as rare of a power as it had once been. In the past humans couldn't use magic, it was the Wingly race that had that power. Nowadays you were hard pressed to find someone without a trace of Wingly blood in them. It hadn't taken long after the two races started to mix for most every human to have magic to some degree. Entire noble families had been started in an attempt to breed a stronger Wingly Human hybrid. The more Wingly blood you had in you the more likely you were to be a powerful Magician, as the people with significant abilities had been dubbed. Most people only had enough magic in them to make flint a useless item and levitate small objects. Some, no matter how much Wingly blood they had, seemed unable to use even the tiniest amount of magic. The captain was one of these people.

Tensing his legs to signal his horse to stop the captain held up his hand telling his troops to do the same. A noise had come from the forest, a noise that the young man riding horseback knew all too well. It had been the sounds of leaves rustling and twigs snapping alerting those who paid attention to the approaching creatures. Silence overtook the area as everyone watched the heavily wooded area for any signs of monsters. Swinging his head to the right as he heard another branch snap the captain drew his sword, the metal making a quiet _hiss _as it left the scabbard. Seeing their leader draw his sword prompted the other soldiers to do the same.

"Captain Shin," one of the soldiers said as he approached the horseman, "we request that you ride on in search of the girl. We can handle any creature that comes out."

"No Evan. If it was something we had to worry about we wouldn't know it was here," Shin replied calmly. Still his eyes were trained on the source of the noise his sword ready to strike at what may come out. A few tension filled minutes passed as the soldiers waited to see what was going to come out of the brush. When nothing happened Shin sheathed his sword and turned his attention back to the road. Endiness was a world filled with monsters that would kill a human without a second thought. Most of them could be taken down by a group of well trained soldiers, but if you got careless or overconfident you would quickly find yourself monster chow.

Upon exiting the forest Shin and his group of veteran soldiers could see the ocean off in the distance, a small town resting at the edge of the water. They were atop a hill overlooking a wide open field the only visible plant life was grass and the forest behind them. The little town was at the southern edge of the Gestaltian border and was their last stop before heading back to the capital, Vector a technologically advanced city, to restock and map out another route. Vector had supplies that couldn't be found in other cities, such as bullets for the guns six of the soldiers carried. The ranged weapons were still in development resulting in less than accurate shots. When they did hit their target, it would tear through armor and scales like nothing else. Due to their inaccuracy the "ranged" weapons were best used in close quarters so you were more likely to actually hit your target. As a man of rank Shin was expected to carry a pistol to demonstrate the technological advances of the Gestaltian army, his was currently sitting, unloaded, in his pack. Like many in his troop he preferred the more trustworthy sword as a means of fighting. Following the road down the hill Shin lead the group to the town in hopes that their search would soon be over.

Like one would expect of a town on the ocean, it was a fishing village. Many houses had seashells and old fishing nets on the outside of the wooden structures as decorations. Only a few houses sat on dirt, the majority were on the large beach. Shin's horse seemed to care very little that the terrain had turned into sand, going on like nothing had changed. The soldiers noticed as the fine grains shifted under their feet with each step leaving an impression of their boots on the ground. Near the edge of the western part of the town was a grand building, well grand in design compared to the rest of the town. It was a large two story house with a gate, with metal work done to look like vines, around the building separated it from the rest of the people. Mayor Vole lived in the building along with his wife and two kids according to the latest census from the town. Every five years men were sent out to gather data on the population of the kingdom. Taxes were adjusted according to how many people were alive along with army recruitment. More people meant a larger army and a larger army needed more supplies so taxes would skyrocket if there was a large influx of people. It was a flawed system as the people sent out to gather the data would sometimes hit the same town twice, marking them as different places, and they would count travelers that just happened to be in the town at the time. In all actuality the real population of the Kingdom was probably a third less than what was recorded. Mayors, noblemen, or anyone in charge of the town had their names taken down and were updated upon death.

Riding up to the gate Shin looked to see if there were any guardsmen around to let them in. When he didn't see anyone on the inside Shin looked down for a lock on the gate. Not seeing any form of a lock, Shin got down off of his horse and pushed open the gate with ease. Why the mayor had a gate that didn't lock was beyond Shin's comprehension. A gate was meant to keep things out and it couldn't do that if anyone with half a brain could walk up and open the door.

"Alright men," Shin turned around to face his troops, "just like the last town. Go and ask if anyone has seen the girl or anyone strange has been seen passing through here." The soldiers saluted with their fist over their chest before leaving to go and carry out their orders. Shins grabbed the reins of his horse and lead it to the large house. There was no stable to speak of but there was an open patch of grass in the corner with a large willow tree. To have a tree growing in among the sand meant that the mayor had hired someone to take the time to transport enough dirt and remove the sand so the tree could grow in the foreign soil. Tying his horse to the tree Shin produced a few sugar cubes out of one of the saddlebags and presented them to his mount which proceeded to eat them happily.

Walking up to the door Shin had to knock three times before someone came to answer the door. It was a little boy no older than eight with sandy blonde hair and large green eyes. He looked up questioningly at Shin confused by the captain's presence. Running up behind the little boy was a woman that looked to be in her early thirties. Like the boy she had sandy blonde hair, hers a few shades lighter, and she had the same shade of green eyes. Placing a dainty hand on the boy's shoulder she gently pulled him back so that she could get to Shin.

"Excuse me sir, how may I help you?" she asked in a soft voice that Shin almost had to focus on just to hear.

"I'm Captain Shin Verus and I'm looking for Mayor Vole," Shin answered very formally as was expected of a commander.

"My husband is currently out at sea. I'm afraid you have just missed him, he shan't be back for another three days."

"Who's in charge while he's gone?" Shin asked needing to let the current head know that twenty-six trained soldiers were going to be staying in the town for a few nights. All towns were required to support any soldiers that passed through but Shin always felt better talking with the town's leader first and setting up accommodations rather than simply taking over the local inn. It was a move that earned him the respect of quite a number of mayors and town leaders along with his own men.

"That would be me, his wife," the woman answered with a tone that asked Shin is he had a problem with a woman leader.

"Then I request a place for my men and I to rest until your husband comes home so that we can ask all the people of this village if they had seen anything odd recently."

"What kind of odd things would send the King's men out to this small town?" the mayor's wife asked concerned about any hidden motives. Her town wasn't big or important, it was one easily forgotten about.

"The King has asked us to locate a young girl. All we know is that she has blonde hair, oddly colored eyes, and appears to be around nineteen," Shin answered calmly sensing the woman's distrust. Seeing military troops in your town was bound to upset most people and cause them to worry. Most towns had guardsmen to protect them from the monsters roaming Endiness. The army was made to deal with war against other kingdoms, only sent out to fight monsters when they gathered in large groups. To see even a small squad was enough to raise concern.

"Is our King searching for a bride perhaps?" the woman laughed at her own joke. "We have not seen any travelin' women round her good Captain. You'd best start your searchin' elsewhere if you hope to find her."

"Even still I'd like to talk with those that had left. They might have seen something before leaving." As he talked with the woman Shin had a feeling that she was hiding something that she didn't want him to find out. Either someone had seen the girl and was possibly housing her, or there was something else at play.

"Mama, mama!" a young girl of six with brown hair and the same green eyes shouted from the hall. Shin had seen over the woman's shoulder that girl had come out of the right hand room closest to outside. She had a look of worry on her face unable to hide her fear like her mother was able to. "The pretty lady's gone!" With the innocence of a child the little girl raced towards her mother and clutched to her skirt sad that the "pretty lady" was gone.

"Excuse me, what did this girl look like?" Shin asked kneeling down to talk to the child.

"Well she had long blonde hair and the prettiest eyes ever, they were purple!" Shin shook his head. While it wasn't much, the girl did fit the description he'd been given. Purple eyes weren't exactly a common color. Standing up straight Shin looked down at the mayor's wife with disdain. He could understand where she was coming from, but he needed to capture the girl.

"Ma'am I'm going to have to ask you to tell me everything about this 'pretty lady'," Shin ordered.

"What does the King want with such a lovely girl? She ain't done no one no harm. All she's done is help us out since we took 'er in."

"I'm sorry, I really am, but I have to bring her in." Shin looked back down to the young girl and her brother both hiding behind their mother. Did the girl he was chasing have family still alive? Why was she running away, what had caused her to leave now? Most importantly, why did the King want her? Shin wanted answers to these questions and the only way he was going to get them was to confront the girl, first he'd have to find her. "How long ago was she here?"

"I was talking with her when you knocked on the door," the woman sighed in defeat, "please don't hurt her."

"I don't plan on it," Shin tried to sound reassuring but failed. The girl was supposed to have amazing magical powers which could easily lead to a fight should she try to resist. If Shin was in her place he'd resist capture, so his hopes for a peaceful capture were dashed before they had a chance to take root.

**Character Corner****:**

Shin Verus

Age: 22

Owner: The Unknowing Herald

Shin is the youngest Captain in the Gestaltian Kingdom's army. He has a family secret he's not willing to share that drives him. He strives to do right and serve the King with pride like his father had taught him to. His latest mission had brought up feelings of doubt for his King, what effect with this girl have on the young soldier?

Terra Branford

Age: 19

Game: Final Fantasy VI

For years Terra has traveled the lands of Endiness plagued by memories of the destruction of her hometown. Wherever she goes destruction is sure to follow. Her caring heart causes her to try and stay away from other people for long periods of time in hopes they will be spared. What causes death to happen around her and what will happen if Shin is able to catch her?


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter II

Lamps filled with Fire Magicite gave off a red glow bringing light to a small workshop. The red crystals that harnessed magical energy were a common source of power throughout the Kingdom of Dalmasca. Here in the city of Clestia magicite could be found by the barrel full. The city rested by a lake on the Dalmasca-Gestahlian border and was the technological capital of its Kingdom. Queen Ashe and her husband Vaan made sure that the town was well protected to prevent invasion. Moving the city was out of the question, the natural resources around Clestia allowed it to function on its own for the most part. They had the third largest magicite mine in the Kingdom, the lake provided them with food, the river provided them with source of power and all the weapons within were a great deterrent for invasion. Sadly all the benefits the town had also made it a perfect starting point should Gestahlian want to start a war. Take out the weapon makers and you would weaken Dalmasca greatly. So not only did Clestia house the largest collection of the Kingdom's scientists but also the largest garrison outside of the capital city Rabanastre.

Now inside the workshop was a tall man with short flat brown hair hunched over a desk. He was wearing a stereotypical white coat and had on a pair of goggles. The lens magnified his golden eyes to comic proportions as he tinkered with a device on his desk. His pale hand held a screwdriver steady as he fiddled with a stubborn screw that didn't want to go into the hole he'd made for it. He knew that the screw would fit, all it was the same size hole and same size screw as all the others he had made on the device. For some reason it just didn't want to go in and let him finish his new prototype. Just about ready to flip the table over in frustration, sending various metal objects from other experiments onto the floor, the screw slid in and let him finish his new weapon. Lying on his desk in front of the scientist were two ordinary looking pistols. Picking one of them up he felt the smooth wood covered handle rest in his palm. His index finger fit perfectly against the trigger leaving enough room for some wiggle room. The circular chamber above the trigger was a metallic grey and would slide out to the right for reloading. Its barrel was a slender four inches long. Popping open the chamber you wouldn't find normal slots designed for bullets, there wasn't a hammer or any such thing on the gun either. No, when you opened the chamber you'd find it practically empty, only a small set of runes carved inside. Taking a blue magicite crystal out of his desk draw the scientist popped it into the chamber. Pointing the now loaded gun at the far wall he squeezed the trigger. An orb of water blasted out of the tip of the barrel and into the wall leaving a fairly large dent.

"Finally got it to work eh?" a bored female voice asked with mock admiration. Standing in the doorway was a tall girl, only a few inches shorter than the man. She had blonde hair hung down to her ears. Like the man she had golden eyes that seemed to drink in the red light from the crystals. She had a large chest even though it was hard to tell as she hid it under a baggy shirt. Her skin was slightly darkened from having spent hours under the sun. "Honestly Brother I don't understand why you want this thing to work so badly."

"Because Mika," the gun's owner said as he placed his goggles on the desk along with the gun, "these things are already more accurate than normal guns. They don't have the piercing power that bullets do but they're made for fighting monsters not humans."

"Are you still working on those things Solaris?" another female voice asked from behind Mika, this one soft and soothing. Mika stepped out of the doorway into the room revealing a woman of average height. She had dark blue hair that fell down to her shoulders, when it wasn't pulled back into a ponytail, and sapphire blue eyes. Contrasting her dark blue hair was her alabaster skin that refused to grow any darker no matter how many hours she spent outside. She wore a tight fitting blouse showing how little developed she was compared to the blonde woman beside her. Her hips though were something that could lead men to an early grave as they gave chase.

"Rin I told you time and time before, they're not for killing humans." Sol sighed exasperated from explaining to the woman once again that he wasn't out to kill his fellow man. "Our elemental affinity isn't as pronounced as the monsters. I mean yeah ones loaded with Fire, Thunder, or Earth Magicite will have killing potential but the others would take too much power to kill as easily as normal guns."

"Still Sol, Rin's got a point. They are dangerous." Mika sided with the bluenette, not at all surprising to Sol."

"Mika, you don't have to agree with your girlfriend on every little thing you know." Sol was used to Mika taking Rin's side on any argument he had with her. More often than not Mika agreed with Rin just to argue with him. She may be his _older _sister but he was by far the more mature one.

"No I actually think these things are dangerous. Remember how your last one exploded and you lost your eyebrows for like three weeks?" Mika was snickering as she remembered what Sol looked like minus his eyebrows.

"Exactly why I loaded a Water Magicite rather than a Fire one this time, I didn't want a repeat of it either." He had been the butt of too many jokes while his eyebrows had grown back to even want to think of trying the guns out with Fire Magicite again. Not to mention the risk of injury they carried. "So Rin, how goes your research into the Moonseed berries? Found a way to combat the symptoms yet?"

"I'm hitting a wall," Rin grumbled. Researchers within the walled city of Clestia didn't just work on mechanical advances they worked on a little bit of everything. Rin was one of the leading botanists in the city. Some of the most recent advances in herbalism came from her team. They were the ones to discover that by taking a plant called Feverfew when brewed could help with joint pain and relieve headaches. However, to get the best effect from the plant you would need to take it daily. "I can counteract the abdominal pain and the indigestion no sweat. It's the paralysis they can induce that I'm having problems with. Without a test subject to study on it's difficult to figure out how they interact with the human body." More researchers than they were comfortable with had no problems with testing out their products on their fellow man. For things like the Moonseed a human test subject was ideal as birds seemed able to eat the plant with no problems rendering any test on them pointless. Rin didn't like using animals either, meaning she had to wait for someone to ingest the plant first before she could try and counter it. Sadly enough she had more than enough test subjects willing to subject themselves to her treatments.

"Well I'm sure you'll work it out on the next one, the massed know you're researching the plant. No doubt some of the men will eat the drupes so they can get close to you," Mika joked patting Rin on the back.

"They get so disappointed when I tell them I'm seeing someone," Rin sighed sadly.

"Tell them you're dating my sister, I'm sure their tune would change after that." Sol chuckled as he returned to his desk popping the magicite out of the gun and loading in a black crystal instead.

"Solaris!" Rin shouted in disbelief. It wasn't like him to make such a comment. He was always the level headed one of the two siblings. For him to have made a joke like that... "Sol when was the last time you slept?"

"Hmm?" Sol looked confused and then started counting on his fingers. "Two or three days ago I guess."

"Last time you ate?" Rin continued her line of questioning.

"When was it Mika brought me that meal you had made?"

"Bed, now" Rin pointed towards the door. Sol had a habit of working through meals and sleep to see a project done, that meal had been yesterday's breakfast. Whenever this happened his personality shifted a bit to more resemble his sister's more comedic personality. He wasn't as bad as Mika, but the family resemblance was certainly clearer. Normally Sol was calm and reasoned everything out, including choosing his words carefully. He wasn't the type to make such a joke, or any joke really, when he had proper sleep and nourishment. Some might call him cold but he was just shy and only once he was comfortable with you would you see the more caring side.

With a large yawn Sol headed out of the room, lack of sleep finally catching up with him since he was no longer fueled by the desire to finish the magicite pistols. Knowing that Sol could very well fall asleep as he walked towards his room within the castle for the researchers, Rin and Mika followed after him. Sol stopped only a few feet away from the door before turning back around. Rin stood in front of him looking up right into his eyes daring him to try and get past her. Producing a key out of his lab coat Sol placed it in Rin's hand. He didn't want anyone walking into his workshop so easily and take his twin pistols. When they arrived at his room, just another door among many others with no markings, Sol waved goodbye and headed into his room to catch up on some much needed sleep.

"You take good care of him Rin." Mika smiled and wrapped her arm around Rin's waist. "If I didn't know any better I'd say you have a thing for my brother."

"He just needs someone to look after him, like a certain someone else I know." Mika looked anywhere but at Rin knowing that she was talking about her.

"I can take care of myself," Mika tried to defend herself.

"Right, and which one of us burnt their finger cooking dinner last night, after cutting the _same _finger slicing up the tomatoes?" Rin teased. It had been an accident prone day for Mika while fixing the evening meal. Thankfully Rin kept the house they shared well stocked with various healing remedies, some of them experimental, and was able to treat both wounds with ease.

"You know Sol's right, if you told the men that came to you we're dating I'm sure you'd have more than enough test subjects."

"Uh-uh, don't try to change the subject Mika."

"Alright fine, I'd probably had a few missing fingers or something if I didn't have you looking out for me," Mika huffed taking her arm off Rin and crossing her arms pretending to be mad, she could be quite the child when she wanted to be. It was all part of her charm though, coupled with her enthusiasm for anything that caught her interest and her determination to see things through till the end made her very appealing to Rin. There was a very obvious downside to dating Mika. She was a flirt. It was like a knee-jerk reaction when she saw a girl she thought was pretty. It had been fine when they had first started out, but now two years later with Mika still flirting with a random girl Rin was starting to get very annoyed. Rin knew that Mika thought nothing of it, it was just how she was with other girls. To be honest it didn't even seem like Mika knew that she was flirting she was just doing what her brain told her to do.

"And don't you forget that," Rin said happily as she took Mika's hand and lead her out of the castle.

-o-O-o-

Sol woke up to the sounds of an avalanche coming from his stomach. He really needed to learn when to stop his research and go grab a meal. Wouldn't do too well if he went and worked himself to death, then he'd never be able to complete any of his projects. Rolling out of bed and getting into a fresh change of clothes, the same thing just a different set, Sol headed out of his room. Rubbing his eyes to get the sleep out of them, he bumped into a few people as he walked down the hall. Ignoring his stomach Sol went right back to his workshop. He ran into a problem at the door, Rin still had the key, but that was easily fixed with the minimal magic power that Sol possessed. Going over to his desk Sol checked the magicite that he had loaded into the pistols. One still had the Dark crystal loaded into it while the other was empty. Taking out a purple magicite and loading it into the chamber Sol placed the gun back down and grabbed a magicite crystal for each element and placed them in his coat pocket. Taking a set of holsters he had ordered made off the hook next to his desk, he strapped them to his thighs to make the guns sit right where his hands fell when he was standing for an easier draw. Once the holsters were strapped on Sol placed the guns in and walked around a bit getting used to the feel of them on his legs. Satisfied with how they felt Sol headed back out of his workshop to find something to quiet his stomach. Weapons weren't allowed in the halls of the castle except for transportation to another room. Sol got around this rule as his pistols were prototypes and technically couldn't be classified as a weapon until completion, many were trying to get this loophole overthrown but until that time Sol was going to exploit it.

As one might imagine the dining hall in the castle was pretty packed with people as it serviced the entire castle, scientists and the cleaning staff. Sol had another option that most of the others didn't, it was called Mika's home. While Sol lived in the castle his sister did not. About five months ago Rin and Mika had gotten a place together and they had told Sol he was welcome to come over whenever he wanted. So faced with homemade meals courtesy of his sister or Rin compared to mass produced crap, Sol picked a home cooked meal. Taking the stairs from the sixth floor down to the ground floor Sol debated walking to the dining hall conveniently located on the opposite side of the exit. People milled about the main floor's entrance hall. Many were people who worked in the building though you could spot a few people that didn't belong. Mercenaries, merchants, and the like hired by the people inside the castle for protection or to collect an item that couldn't be found nearby. Sweet and tasty smells wafted out into the room as the doors to the dining hall opened up letting a small group of five exit. The longer he thought about how hungry he was the more he just wanted something to eat and then get started on testing his inventions. Desire for _good _food won out and Sol walked briskly out of the large castle.

Stepping out into the sunlight Sol put a hand up to block the light from assaulting his eyes. Clestia was a crowded city, buildings were placed right next to one another with barely any space in between. Most of the structures near the research center were two floors high to accommodate all the belongings that the merchants brought with them. There were no fewer than six inns within the walled city to house all the people that made their way to Clestia. The buildings closest to the large stone castle were shops that sold anything from your normal supplies such as food, dinnerware, vases, anything you'd put in a house to the more crazed items such as monster parts. Monster parts, slime, and the such was for the researchers more than the normal citizens but there had been accounts of many people buying scales to make into necklaces or some other jewelry. Beyond all the shops was the residential district home to, well homes. It was split into two small districts those with money that could afford large houses were closer to the merchant district while all the other cheaper homes were closer to the garrisons that lined the wall. Sol's destination was the lower residential district.

Now when they had planned the city out they had done so with a military eye. The research center was standing high on a hill overlooking everything. Each of the districts was a ring around the castle and on a lower level. All houses had to be made with a flat solid roof that could hold the weight of a few fully armor soldiers. Invading army comes in and even if they manage to take a few houses at the start they would end up facing an uphill battle constantly giving the Clestian archers the higher ground. The invention of guns had lowered the usefulness of this tactic as they fired up just as easily as they fired down. Also there was the fact that Clestia hadn't been invaded since it's birth. Now all the rooftops served as a personal road for the scientists, multiple roofs connected by crude bridges that could quickly be destroyed should invaders break the walls. It was perfect for if your current project required you to go out into the field. You could get to the edge of the city without trying to get past the jam packed merchant district. Taking a ladder up to a nearby roof Sol walked on the upper streets of Clestia down to his sister's home. It wasn't a direct route but it'd drop him off in the right area at least. You could tell when you reach the lower residential area by the state of the homes. They were generally large square buildings with little to no color on the outside to differentiate them from all other homes. Only one thing separated one home from the other and that was the numbers painted on the doors that were required to by the city. The numbers were required to see how many people were actually living in the town and how many were just passing through.

Coming to a house that had a set of boxes right next to the house Sol debated either jumping right to the ground or using the wooden boxes as a makeshift ladder. Not wanting to take the chance that the crates would break under his weight and cause him to damage the contents Sol took a breath and leapt down off the roof. Sol landed with a roll like he'd seen so many people do and got to his feet. He checked the holsters to make sure that he hadn't lost one of the pistols during the roll. Finding both handles right where they were supposed to be he headed down the dirt road to find Mika and Rin's house. When he found house number three hundred seventy he knocked on the door. It, like every other house around it, was made of a dark brown wood. There was a window on either side of the door letting light into the home. Unlike a lot of the homes on the street there were flower boxes hanging out of the windows. Only they weren't like normal flower boxes filled with pretty plants to help bring color and personality to a home. The flowers that Rin had planted in them all had medicinal purposes and looked like a hodgepodge of random plants. Rin was the one to answer the door, to which Sol was thankful. Too many times these past few months his sister had opened the door wearing very little, Mika's sense of boundaries was very obscure.

"Good morning Sol," Rin greeted with a smile on her face. "I had a feeling that you'd be coming over this morning." She looked him up and down, her eyes stopping at the pistols holstered on his legs. "Do you really have to bring those with you?"

"I'm going out for a field test after breakfast and was wondering if Mika would come out with me." While Sol may have gotten the brains of the family Mika had definitely gotten the brawns. That's not to say that she was dumb, she was as every bit as smart as Sol when she could focus. Mika just put effort into keeping her body in shape and knew how to bat around a few monsters with her staff, Sol was practically hopeless when it came to fighting.

"They aren't going to explode or anything are they?" Rin questioned knowing that it was a high possibility that the magicite could cause an explosion if they were drained improperly.

"One one thousandth percent of a chance they'll spontaneously explode," Sol stated sure of his numbers. Rin just gave him a flat look. "It's magicite Rin, there's always a chance something will go wrong. The chances of it are so low it's practically not there."

"Fine," Rin sighed, "but take them out for any reason and you'll have to worry about what I put in your food." She headed into her house leaving the door open for Sol to follow.

"So you're cooking today," Sol observed as he closed the door behind him.

-o-O-o-

Sol stood on the outside the stone wall of Clestia waiting for his sister and Rin. While she didn't practice constantly Rin was an excellent shot with a bow. She didn't have any appointments for the day and had decided to accompany Sol and Mika out into the green fields around Clestia. While soldiers patrolled the surrounding area to keep monsters at bay Sol needed to go out further so he could find a monster or two to test his pistols on. It wasn't going to do very well if the magicite didn't actually fire off an elemental charge strong enough to take advantage of a monster's weakness. While he was waiting for his sister and her girlfriend Sol cleared the excursion with the guards letting them know that they were heading out to test a new weapon. The guards didn't appear to be interested in what Sol was doing, they had seen too many crazy inventions to really care about magic guns. Even still they had to listen to Sol's explanation and jot down why he was out and what he was testing, just in case he didn't make it back someone could go out and find his body and what invention he'd carried out with him.

Rin and Mika came out of the gate only a few minutes after Sol had finished giving his report to the soldiers. Both girls were dressed for going fighting while Sol was still in his lab coat. Mika had on a pair of black pants and boots with a loose fitting dark red shirt. As always Mika kept her wardrobe simple. A long metallic rod was strapped to Mika's back, her staff was a heavy weapon made to break bones. Rin had kept her hair pulled back into a ponytail to keep it out of her face. She wore a dark green blouse and an ankle length brown skirt with a slit down middle so her legs wouldn't be hindered should she need to run. As alway Rin had on a pair of black heels, a blow to Sol's pride as Rin could outrun him even when she was wearing heels. She held a yew bow in her right hand lacking any other way to transport the relic. Hanging down off the left side of her waist was the quiver filled with to the brim with arrows. There were three different colored feathers to the arrows. Green meant the arrow tip would be horizontal when knocked, red for vertical tips, and black for tips that carried a bit of poison inside the fragile iron. The black feathered ones had been hard to produce as Rin had to find a blacksmith that could make an arrow that could survive being in a quiver yet shatter upon impact when fired. From there the poison would seep down and into the wound the arrow had attempted to create when it impacted.

"Ready Brother?" Mika asked with a grin on her face. She was ready to show off her skills for Rin, to hell with the fact that this was a test for Sol's new magicite pistols.

"Ready as ever Mika," Sol answered already debating on whether he should have just hired some mercenaries to protect him instead.

They all three followed one the dirt road out into the open fields around Clestia. They had to go out three miles before they would get past the inner patrol ring and to the point where monsters could be found with some certainty. The sun was hidden behind a blanket of white clouds offering constant shade to the three. Traveling through an open field was a boring experience. Only a random rock broke up the monotony of the tall grass that covered the ground around the road. After an hour's time of walking and conversing about their research projects, Mika was working on how return power to magicite crystals once they had been drained, they finally caught sight of a group of monsters. It was a flock of Vampire Kiwis. They were tiny creatures with yellow orb-like bodies and a long needle mouth. Black leather wings sprouted from the tops of their head and they had blue scaled feet ending with sharp ivory claws. Sol mentally ran through a bestiary that he had read a week ago in preparation for testing his weapons. Vampire Kiwi was a darkness type monster and was weak to the element of light. Taking out a yellow-white crystal from his coat pocket Sol switched it with the Dark Magicite loaded in one of the guns.

By the time Sol had managed to make the change the Kiwis had spotted the trio of humans and started to fly at them. Mika reached over her shoulder and grabbed her staff ready to swing it around when one of the monster got within range. Her thunder was stolen by Rin who shot the Kiwi right between the eyes with a red feathered arrow. Mika looked at the smaller woman in annoyance for having her kill poached. Rin knocked another arrow, this time green to keep her quiver balanced, and shot at another approaching Kiwi. This time the arrow only managed to clip one of the wings as the monster was able to flutter out of the way in time. Mika smiled and swung her staff hitting the injured creature square on the head. Bones could be heard breaking underneath the strain of the blow the blonde had dealt. As yet another Kiwi came flying at the three, completely unhindered by the fact two of its fellow swarm members had just died, Sol had managed to take aim and get a shot off before Rin or Mika got to it. A ray of white hot light left the barrel of the gun at a blinding fast speed. It grazed the Kiwi's side leaving a black burn mark from where the gunshot had hit it. Luckily for Sol the light ray continued on and hit another Vampire Kiwi behind the first disintegrating it upon direct contact. The first one Sol had hit was picked off by another of Rin's arrows.

"Damn, should have practiced on my accuracy first." Sol took aim at another Vampire Kiwi and fired off another ray of light. This time he managed to hit his target and watched as it too turned to ash.

"What the? You mean to say you haven't practiced with them before coming out and risking your life against real monster?!" Mika shouted at her younger brother waking a Kiwi that had gotten past Sol and Rin's fire.

"Well I forgot that each element would fire differently, I'm an ace with Water Magicite." Sol continued to shoot at the incoming monsters.

"That's just peachy now ain't it? Good thing you're shooting LIGHT then!" Mika couldn't believe her brother, sometimes for all his genius he could be downright stupid.

"Well Light Magic is their weakness, whole point of this experiment," Sol retorted, "but I should try another element to see if they die just as quickly." Sol took the other pistol out of its holster and aimed it at the nearest Vampire Kiwi. When he pulled the trigger the sounds of electricity could be heard before the lightning left the barrel of the gun. Purple energy arced out of the gun and into the monster Sol had been aiming at. Once the initial jolt had passed the Kiwi looked a little crispy but it wasn't hindered very much by the attack. "So the element does matter." Sol placed the thunder gun back into the holster and kept shooting with the light gun.

With all three of them fighting off the swarm of Vampire Kiwis, and two of them being ranged attackers, they finished off the group of twenty or so quickly. In the end there was about thirteen dead Kiwis on the ground more than a few of them had an arrow or two sticking out of their body. If it was a contest as to who killed the most, Rin was the clear winner. Mika poked at a few to make sure they weren't just playing dead as Rin retrieved her arrows making sure to check and see if they could be used again or not before placing them back in her quiver. Sol popped the Light Magicite out of the gun and checked it over for any cracks that could have been created while he was firing the pistol. If the magicite had gotten any cracks that meant the gun was drawing out too much power at once and could cause the explosion Rin had worried about. Finding no such defects in the crystal Sol smiled with pride. He very well could have possibly created a pair of pistols that ran solely on magic.

"I was wondering when if they'd be able to kill those monsters," a gruff voice sounded from behind the trio.

Sol turned to find a group of grey armored soldiers sitting atop on horses. The armor alone marked them as soldiers from the Gestaltian Kingdom but no one in Dalmasca rode horses, chocobos were the mount of choice for them. From how small the group was and what they knew of the army of Gestaltian they were facing a scouting squad lead by a lone captain. The captain trotted his armored mount forward towards Sol and pointed and small handgun at the scientist.

"Grab the blonde," he ordered to his men, "she fits the description well enough."

"And what do you want with my sister?" Sol asked his hand twitching as over the handles of his guns. The pistol that the captain was holding was a basic design that had a common problem of not firing each time the trigger was pulled. He would have to pull the hammer back with each misfire giving Sol time to get off his own shot. There was the high risk that the gun would fire on the first shot, unlikely but possible. The question was would it, and if it didn't could Sol draw and fire is own in enough time?

"Sol DUCK!" Rin shouted. Sol dropped down as fast as he could. He heard the clicking of the gun failing to fire as he fell and the clang of metal meeting metal. Rolling to the side to get out of range in case the captain wasn't injured and ready to fire again Sol got up and pulled both guns out of their holsters and into his hands ready to fire. He came up to find a green feathered arrow sticking out of the gap between the plates of the horse's armor. It was an excellent shot that Sol was amazed at. He knew Rin was good with a bow, he just didn't know she was _that _good. Sol backed up to stand next to the girls keeping his pistols trained on the group of soldiers that all had swords and lances ready to fight them.

"What are a group of Gestaltian soldiers doing in Dalmasca?" Mika asked stepping out in front of Sol and Rin.

"Looking for a girl our King has ordered us to find and you fit the description perfectly," the captain said. "Course he didn't say that you had to come to him unharmed so we're free to rough you up a bit before taking you to him."

"He better not be implying anything," Mika shuddered as she looked at the man that was too buff for his own good.

"Mika we can't fight them all," Rin pointed out. They were outnumbered eight to one after all.

"I'm not letting them take me Rin. Besides who knows what they'll do to you and Sol once they've got me."

"So we fight?" Sol asked still keeping his guns trained on the group of trained soldiers.

"Think of it as a field test," Mika chuckled as she got ready to fight off the group.

* * *

**Character Corner **(For those that don't know, this time around all character belong to me)

Solaris "Sol" Adamas

Age: 20

A guy with knowledge on weaponry that'll put most people to shame, Sol has recently been working on how to use magicite to create new weapons. His latest invention the twin magicite pistols are the peak of his research. He's shy to those he doesn't know and open with only a few people. His sister Mika is his closest friend ever since they moved to Clestia after the death of their parents. Like most people nowadays Sol has Wingly blood letting him use small amounts of magic.

Mikaela "Mika" Adamas

Age: 22

The blonde bombshell and older sister to Sol, Mika has fully embraced her Wingly heritage and has dived into magic research. Like her brother she's too smart for her own good her only problem is the inability to focus. She has a childish side and she's a flirt. After the death of her parents Mika came out of the small comfortable shell she had as a child, becoming a real people person. She too is a scientist at the research center, taking on all things magical.

Rin Fuco

Age: 24

Rin is a very calm woman who knows what she wants out of life. While her girlfriend Mika is a bit eccentric Rin has learned to deal with it and loves Mika's outgoing personality, even if she doesn't care for the flirting. Knowledgeable in herblore and able to produce potions and toxins that most can only hope to recreate Rin does her best to help her the creatures of Endiness. While Rin isn't the violent type she has picked up the bow and is deadly accurate, where has this simple herbalist picked up such a skill?


	3. Chapter 3

**(A/N): **I have a poll going on my profile that I'd like for you guys to check out.

Chapter III

Shin bade farewell to the family before running over to grab his horse. Quickly untying his horse's reins from the tree Shin hopped on and headed out into town. If the young girl was telling the truth than his target wasn't that far from him and she would be on foot. Finding one of his men near the mayor's house he asked for him to gather everyone at the center of town. Shin was hoping that maybe the other villagers had seen the girl leave town and could give them a direction to head in. They needed a direction to start looking in if they had any hopes of catching this girl. She couldn't head south thanks to the ocean that still left north, east, and west. If she had bolted when Shin and his men had come into town then she easily could have gone in any direction to avoid them. What was bugging shin though was why the girl had run? Did she know something about why she was being hunted like a prized deer? Now that they were closer to catching her Shin only had more questions rather than the answers he wanted.

There was nothing really marking the center of town other than the fact it was a wide open area amidst of all the houses. The few buildings located in the center of town all had the doors facing inward giving Shin the feeling he was being watched. It wasn't long before all of his men had gathered in the circle with him. None of them had anything to report, it appeared that no one had seen a girl fitting the description pass through town. The only information they had to go on was that she had just been in the mayor's house. Shin needed to figure out their next move and he needed to do it fast. Even if the villagers hadn't seen anything the girl had to have left tracks as she left the village. Shin gave the order for his men to search the surrounding area for a set of tracks leaving the city. With any hope the villagers wouldn't have thought to get rid of her footprints yet. Not one to sit around and wait for his men to do the work Shin walked his horse around the outskirts of the village looking for any footprints in the sand or even traces of someone trying to cover tracks.

Unsuccessful in his search Shin headed back to the town center. Most of the squad was there already waiting for him. From the looks on their faces they hadn't found anything either. It wasn't until the last two came rushing in that Shin had hope they'd have a direction to go. Both men ran right up to Shin and saluted before they started to talk, at the same time. Sadly they weren't saying the same thing so Shin had no clue what either of them were saying and got lost trying to pick out any words.

"One at a time please," Shin ordered holding up his hand.

"Right!" they said in unison. "We found tracks heading northeast captain. These tracks appeared to be fresh. Whoever made them had small feet and must weigh next to nothing considering how deep the tracks were."

"Show them to me." Shin said already walking in the direction they had specified. Shin's horse watched its master walk away for a few seconds before following after him. It had come to understand that the person sometimes would walk away and expect him to follow after.

The two soldiers ran out in front of Shin and lead the way to the tracks that they both had found. Like they said the impressions in the sand weren't that deep but with how dry the sand was it would take a lot more weight than normal to leave an accurate impression. Still they appeared to be as if they would belong to a girl, the heel shapes were a dead giveaway, and they were heading away from the village. Shin looked down the line of footprints as if trying to discern where she could be heading. There wasn't much in the direction that she was heading, just a few hills and a lot of uneven terrain. Bushes, trees, and rocks dotted the area making it ideal for hiding from pursuers. Either she was really lucky in the direction she picked or she knew her way around the area and had planned on heading that direction. Beyond the hills were monster infested lands that even the soldiers had been ordered to leave alone. It was a large collection of many powerful creatures that would take the entire army to clear it out even remotely safely. If this girl was just lucky in her pick then she didn't know about the monster nests.

"Captain Shin," one of the soldier approached looking out in the distance like Shin. "We request that you ride ahead to find the woman. On your horse you have a far better chance of catching her."

"But we-" Shin started.

"We only have to bring her in as a squad, you can capture her and then we all take her in," the soldier pointed out. "We'll be able to follow your tracks to her no problem. No one knows your horses tracks as well as we do."

Shin nodded in agreement, riding would give him the speed needed to catch up with the girl even if he had to stop to check on the trail from time to time. Mounting his horse Shin looked down at his squad, each of them smiled back. They were counting on him to find the girl so they could retire in peace and live out their days with their family. Flicking the reins Shin urged the horse into a run following the direction of the footprints. It was a straight path from the sand to the dirt making the trail easy to follow. Once they had gotten to the grass it was harder to spot the direction that she had gone. Sometimes it was a few steps worth of flattened grass other times it was a scuff mark on a rock that told Shin he was still going in the right direction.

Reaching the top of the first hill he'd come across Shin looked out at the area below him. There were boulders the size of him and his horse combined that could easily hide a person, or monster. With no man made path cutting through the area nature had been allowed to do whatever it wanted. From his vantage point Shin could see that the ground would suddenly drop as if someone had pushed the land straight down. He would have to be careful that he didn't find one of those the hard way while walking through. As he glanced around it became abundantly clear that he would be better off on foot. The terrain was uneven and would cause his steed many problems as its large bulk tried to navigate a path that could offer it sure footing. All the rises and drops would force Shin to keep the horse a little more than a trot. Dismounting Shin tied a small pouch containing a few potions and different magicite to his belt in case he needed a quick fix. He may not have his family's magical ability but he could do wonders when draining the power from the magical crystals. Draining from the crystals, while they yielded high results, had the chance of breaking and causing a backlash on the user. Healing crystals would just shatter but the elemental ones would exploded in fury at being drained.

Outfitted as best as he could be Shin lead his horse down to a nearby tree and tied it off. His squad wouldn't be far behind him and they would easily spot the creature from the hill and take care of it. Monsters would be the only worry and Shin wondered if he should leave the horse untied or not. His care for the creature made Shin untie the reins letting the horse do as it wanted. Most likely it would stay where it was waiting for the team the horse was unnaturally smart sometimes. Heading back to where he had last seen a footprint in the dirt, Shin looked at the way it was facing and started in that direction keeping his eyes peeled for any other signs or monsters. Whoever this girl was seemed to know how to leave as few marks as she possibly could. There were times when Shin was about to head back to the last sign to just barely catch the next on the edge of his vision. All the marks were small and only an experienced tracker would be able to detect them. The days Shin had spent hunting with his father had certainly paid off, it was almost as if he'd been training for a day like this. If only he wasn't using these skills to hunt a fellow human there be a bit of a thrill to it all.

Hopping across a few stones Shin spotted an object lying on the ground not far from where he was at. It was too small for him to get a good look at it from his position but the color was red and the shape familiar. Upon reaching the item in question Shin found it to be a shoe, a red heel to be exact. From the size of it there was no doubt it belonged to the person he was chasing after. How this girl was running around in a heel that would barely cling to her foot was a feat Shin would never be able to understand. The back strap of the heel had broken, frayed by the looks of it, and that was probably the reason it had fallen off her foot while she tried to race up the hill. With one shoe gone the girl would probably toss the other so she wasn't unbalanced. Without her heels she might move faster but there was always the chance she could step on something and hurt herself causing her to slow. Shin placed the heel in his bag, when he caught up with her she was going to need it if she was to walk back to the capital.

Once he was over the next hill Shin let of a curse. Below him was a pack of large grey wargs, the ones you could easily saddle and ride like a horse. They seemed to be attacking a deer they had chased out of the nearby woods. When that deer was gone they would be on the lookout for their next meal and smell Shin on the wind. One deer just wasn't enough to feed a pack of eight wargs and they didn't mind eating humans right out of their armor. It was like a nice to-go bag for them. Stopping to feel which way the wind was blowing Shin felt like the universe was against him. Right now the wind was in his favor, he was downwind of the wargs, but he needed to be on the other side of them which would put _them _downwind of _him_. A wargs sense of smell was something to worry about. With how hot the day was and the fact that Shin was in his armor, he was probably pretty ripe and they'd have no problems hunting him. Really there were only three options for Shin. One was to try and go around the wargs and hope that they didn't follow after him. Second was to attack the wargs now and be done with them. Last was Shin's preferred method, find a defendable place and lure the wargs there to kill them.

Shin didn't have much time to find a place to fight them though. They were already tearing into the dead deer. Spotting a rock formation only twenty yards off to the right that was tight enough only one warg would be able to come in Shin debated heading there. He'd be reduced to stabbing with his sword if he ran there. A polearm of some sort would be better weapon for a place like that. Even his gun would be a nice option but that was back on his horse. A loud howl from the pack let Shin know that they were done with their snack and more than ready to come after him. Not wanting to get surrounded and try fighting off the entire pack at once Shin booked it towards the rock formation. Another howl cut through the air as the wargs spotted Shin running towards his destination. Twenty yards was an easy distance to close when you have adrenaline pumping through your system giving you a burst of speed. Shin was able to reach the rock formation and draw his sword in plenty of enough time before the first leapt at him. Shin stepped back out of the reach of the wargs yellow teeth and returned with a stab at the creature's muzzle. From the scars on the wargs face this wasn't the first time it had been hit with a human blade. It didn't shy away at the bite of Shin's sword and charge forward leaping up to tackle the human to the ground. Reaching into his pouch Shin grabbed one of the magicite crystals inside, a red crystal. Drawing the energy from the magicite, into his body, then out into his sword, Shin set his blade on fire. Wargs were Earth type monsters but they still had a healthy fear of fire, no one like the smell of singed fur after all.

As he fought of the first warg Shin knew that he had to keep as close to the back rock as he could. If one of the other wargs were to get behind him he fight would become a lot more difficult than he wanted. From how far back the first warg was staying it had the same idea. They may not be as smart as humans but wargs knew how to hunt and to them humans were just another animal to eat. His Fire Magicite didn't have much power left in it so Shin let the flames die down as he tried to figure out what he was going to do. There was enough power in the crystal for one Fire spell and it might cause the warg to leave him alone but the magicite would be useless afterwards. Reaching into the pouch Shin felt around for other magicite, each crystal he felt held healing magic inside. Never before had he cursed himself so much for being so cautious as to only bring one attack magicite. Three healing crystals weren't going to be useful if that warg got his mouth around Shin's neck. Resigning himself to the fact he was going to have to step forward and attack the too smart monster Shin heard the rest of the pack outside yelping as if they were being attacked. Their leader, the one Shin was facing, started to back up never taking its eyes off of Shin until it was clear of the rocks. When it turned around it was met with an icicle to the shoulder.

Cautiously Shin stepped out into the open, a white crystal in his hands ready to heal himself should he be attacked. Looking in the direction that the icicle had come from Shin spotted a humanoid figure. She, yes it was a girl, had a slender frame and long blonde hair that cascaded down her shoulder line. A tattered red dress clung to her body, it was sleeveless and held up by two thin straps, the skirt of the dress flared out a bit. Connected to a white belt was a thin rapier. It was a slender blade with a white hilt, green leather for a better grasp was wrapped around it. For extra protection a thin half circle bar went from pommel to blade. Two things caught Shin's attention above all others, she was wearing a single red heel and her violet eyes stared at him with such sadness. This was the girl that he was hunting and if Shin's magical sense wasn't lying, she was the one who had just saved him from fighting off the wargs.

-o-O-o-

Terra heard someone knock on the door of the house. The mayor's wife, who she'd been talking to, excused herself to go answer the door. They had both already heard the door open one of the children having answered it. A deep voice, that of a guy, could be heard though Terra couldn't fully make out the words from her spot on the bed. Getting off the bed she crept over to the door and opened it slightly so that she could better hear what was being said. Her position didn't allow her to see the person at the door but his formal speech sounded like he was in the army or maybe a nobleman from nearby village. As Terra stood there listening to the man speaking with the mayor's wife Terra overheard that they were looking for a girl and the description fit her to a T. Did this guy know about all the attacks that happened around her, did he come to kill her? She couldn't sit around and find out, she had to find the creature and get rid of it first. Grabbing her rapier from the bedside Terra strapped on her belt and opened the room's window. While she didn't want to leave like this now was her best chance to get away. There was no reason for the family she was staying with to hide her.

Leaping out onto the sand Terra went around the village trying her best not to be spotted. Over the years she had learned how to hide in hopes that she would be able to lose the monster that followed her wherever she went. While that hadn't worked out she had perfected how to hide from other people. A girl traveling alone started a lot of rumors so it was best not to be spotted and lie about getting separated from her brother, or some other family member, when she was discovered. The less rumors that spread about her the harder it should be for the creature to find her. Terra's stomach growled loudly as she passed a house where the people inside were fixing their lunch. As much as she wanted to stop and grab some food she couldn't take the chance of being spotted. When she got far enough away from the village she'd have to forage for some food, maybe even hunt if she was desperate. Only twice had she needed to resort to killing an animal for food, she much rather live off what she could scavenge from the trees and bushes then bring more death into the world. Desperate times had called for desperate measures though and she could still remember both the deer and rabbit's death like it was yesterday rather than years ago.

Walking around one of the house Terra spotted a man in armor with a sword sitting on his waist. Terra had traveled enough over the years that she knew all the armies by the color of the armor. The grey armor was that of the Gestaltian Kingdom, the last town she had been in was in the Kingdom of Dalmasca. She had traveled far but at least she was on the same continent, she'd never changed continents but she figured it was only a matter of time before the creature dumped her across the sea. If there were soldiers in the town they would have followed the roads to the town. Only one road came down to this small fishing village and that was up north. So she would head north to, but not along the road, that would be asking to be discovered. With a goal in mind Terra headed northeast to stay away from the road and head in the direction she hoped they would last think to check. What Terra didn't count on was how well the sand was able to keep her footprints preserved. Around the town it was no problem as people walked around and would cover her tracks in no time.

Trying to distance herself as much as possible from the village in the shortest time possible Terra put all her effort she could muster into running. Terra was more than just a normal human, her father had been a very powerful mage and he'd passed his power on to her. Able to cast powerful spells Terra settled for one that helped her reduce fatigue as she ran up a hill and caught a glimpse of the land laid out before. There were so many places to hide in that she knew she couldn't have picked a better direction to run in. Even if the soldiers did start to catch up to her she would be able to lose them in all the shrubs and crevices that she could see. Taking care going downhill Terra walked at a brisk pace trying not to fall down the hill instead. Many times she had debated switching to normal shoes but she just couldn't bring herself to wear anything other than heels, besides she had gotten so used to them normal shoes would probably hinder her more now. A few stones gave her some problems as she stepped on them not knowing they were there.

Stepping on one such rock she twisted her ankle and felt a sharp pain shoot up through her leg. Holding her hand over the spot that hurt Terra cleared her mind and focused on using her magic to heal the wound. Green light emitted from her hand as the magic started to take effect. Taking off her heel Terra rubbed her ankle to soothe away any remaining pain. When she went to go put her shoe back on she noticed that the strap keeping it on her foot was starting to break. It would be better to just leave it here then try putting it on again. Still she couldn't leave such an obvious clue behind. Doing the first thing that came to her mind Terra undid her belt and slipped the heel on using the strap as a holder. Hopefully it was strong enough that it wouldn't break as she ran. Getting back up Terra started running up the hill. It was quite hard to run in only one heel but she had soon gotten into a rhythm and used a small bit of wind magic to solidify the air under her foot so she wasn't stepping all the way down onto the ground. Many would consider it a waste of magic but Terra had found that her magic reserves were far vaster than the normal person's. In other words she had the power to spare on such a little thing.

Terra's speed suffered a bit as she had to spend time getting used to walking with magic as a crutch. While she didn't know how far the soldiers were, or even if they were following her, she had the pressing feeling that something was after her and close by. Stopping and hiding in a bush Terra tried to see if she could spot what her sixth sense was trying to warn her about. It was as she crawled into the bushes that she noticed the heel she had placed on her belt was missing. The strap had probably broken and now her shoe was lying out there for someone to come along and find. Only a minute or so after she had gone into her hiding spot did Terra spot a pack of wargs chasing after a deer. It was only a fawn; there were still some spots on its brown fur. As much as she wanted to help the creature she knew that by the time she was within range to stop the vicious hunters the small deer would be dead. Averting her eyes Terra heard the lead warg let out a short howl in victory. It was just a part of nature, but it wasn't one that Terra had to enjoy. Now she would have to wait for the wargs to finish their meal and move on before she could leave her spot. She was downwind of them and unless they headed in her direction she would be safe.

While she waited Terra tried to think of where to go next. Much as she didn't want to put people at risk she needed to go to a town. A new pair of shoes was desperately needed and she would have to stock up on road food. It would be a quick trip in and out, no stopping at the local inn or anything. While the creature normally gave her a month or so before attacking again she didn't want to draw its attention anymore than she already seemed to. It was impossible to tell what went through its mind. For all she knew it destroyed any town she went into. Since she only stayed in town for three day max news of what was going on in the world was hard to come by. Always when she grew and had to get new clothes she stayed in town for a week as the items had to be made for her and that took time. With the little gold she had it was going to be hard to get a pair of heels. Shoes were expensive if they weren't just basic leather and all of Terra's money had been lost at sea apparently. That meant she was going to have to work for the shoemaker for a pair, hopefully she'd be able to find a kind enough shoemaker. Terra had held many different jobs, anything from waitress at an inn to shopkeeper. Her skills were weak but varied. While she didn't see it she was assured by many people that she was cute and attracted customers to whatever place she worked.

The wargs were almost done with their meal when Terra spotted someone coming up over a hill. He was too far away for her to get a good view of him but the sun was reflecting off of something, most likely armor. Terra felt her heart speed up as she realized that the person up on the hill was a soldier, they had finally caught up to her. Whoever it was hadn't spotted her from the way he was looking around. She knew the instant that his eyes fell on the warg pack. His whole body moved back a step as if out of instinct. Again the man started to look around and this time his gaze seemed to be looking at a large set of boulders. They made a sort of tunnel with one large rock blocking the exit. Judging by how long he looked at it Terra got the feeling he was planning on fighting the wargs. It looked like a good place to take on the pack of eight creatures. Wargs were vicious and would attack humans in groups circling around their prey and performing coordinated attacks. That rock formation wouldn't allow them to use such tactics though. One of the wargs let out a howl as soon as they spotted the man atop the hill.

_I hope he gets to those rocks in time. _Terra thought as she watched him run down the hill. _Not even the soldiers deserve to be killed. He just has orders to catch me, he probably doesn't even know why. _It was a sad thought that the man was simply chasing after her on orders. It was his job though and Terra couldn't fault him for it. Soldiers did what their kings told them to do so they could earn their way in the world. He probably had a family back home that he was taking care of with the money he earned doing the king's bidding.

Unsure as to whether she should sit and make sure the soldier was alright or make a run for it while he was occupied Terra sat still as the wargs reached the rock formation. Like the soldier must have planned only one of the monsters were able to come at him. While he was able to face only one at a time Terra could see a flaw in his plan, his sword didn't have the length needed to strike at the wargs safely. The lead warg that had gone in after the soldier was staying back out of reach trying to lure his prey out of hiding. Some of the other wargs circled around waiting for the soldier to move away from the rock so they could surround him. At this rate the man would either move forward enough to become trapped or would get tired enough and make another mistake. Unable to sit idly by and watch the events unfold or run and let the man die Terra got up and ran over to the warg pack.

Smart enough to not charge them head on Terra planned to use magic to dispatch of the creatures. She knew that wargs were of the Earth element and had a weakness to Water magic. Doing her best to sneak up on the hunters Terra sent out a spear of ice into the wargs up on the rocks waiting to pounce down. They fell silently, the spears cutting through their vocal cords preventing them from crying out. There weren't any more of the wargs to pick off the other five were all grouped together at the entrance waiting for their turn to attack the trapped human. Gathering her power Terra built up the energy in front of her into multiple ice spears. The wargs must have smelled her or had sensed the large amount of magic she was gathering as they turned to face her. Whatever the reason was it didn't matter as Terra let loose a barrage of water magic at the beasts. They didn't fall as silently as the first two did, many of them yelped like little puppies as ice pierced their skin. Terra tried to ignore the cries as she readied a final attack for the last warg. Sure enough it backed out of the rocks to see what had happened to its pack. Closing her eyes Terra let the last spear fly into the warg.

Opening her eyes Terra saw the alpha warg lying dead on the ground and the soldier coming out. He was wearing the grey armor just like the soldier in the village had been only with the addition of a cape. He had shoulder length spiky brown hair. Only because she was standing on higher ground was Terra able to look him directly in the eyes. His brown eyes looked like they had seen more than their far share of death and sadness. He still held his sword and seemed to be clutching a small item in his off hand. What got Terra was that he didn't seem to be that much older than her. That and the look he was giving her, it was so sad, like he didn't want to do what he was about to do. She couldn't wait to see what he was going to do she had to get away and fast. This man was here to take her to a large city, the capital, which meant a lot of people. If the creature found her there it would no doubt destroy the entire town. Terra gathered up some mana and sent out a stun spell in hopes that it would give her enough time to escape.


	4. Chapter 4

**(A/N): **Okay for those of who have been reading up till now I'd like to say that there are 3 arcs to this story and the title for Arc 1 is above Chapter I. Just to give you guys an idea of how long this fic is going to be, Arc 1 is going to be around the same size as my _Keyblade of the Heart _fic. That's 130K word count.

Chapter IV

_What the hell are we thinking? _ Mika thought to herself as she stared at the Gestaltian squad. _Twenty-six versus three, that's not the kind of odds I'd like to fight on. Much as I love Brother and Rin but they ain't the best at combat. _

Mika glanced back at the two behind her. They were to two people most important to her. Sol, her only family member that accepted her for who she was. Rin, her loving girlfriend that was always there with a smile and something soothing to say. One question plagued Mika's mind as she glared at the Gestaltian soldiers, could she risk their lives? Sure she didn't want to go and get herself taken in to their country and have who knows what happen to her, but she couldn't ask Rin and Sol to fight for her.

"I know what you're thinking Mika," Rin said as she drew out a red feathered arrow and took aim at the in the direction of the soldiers.

"We aren't letting you do it," Sol added as he switched out the Light Magicite for an Earth one. "Besides, they'd just take you in and kill us anyways."

There was a silence as the trio waited for any sign that Sol was wrong in his line of thinking. After one soldier coughing and breaking the silence they figured that the technical researcher was in the right. If they didn't manage to kill all twenty-six members of the squad than Sol and Rin would meet a bloody end and Mika would have a one way ticket to Vector. Oh sure it'd be a nice way to see some of the neighboring country but it'd most likely be while shackled and no one wanted to tour a country that way. Mika's whole body felt tense while she waited for anyone to make a move. No one it seemed wanted to start the match which Mika thought was odd as the soldiers had a very large advantage over them.

_That can't be scared can they? _Mika wondered as she waited to see what was going to happen. _Sol's guns! They don't know the full extent of their power. Or lack of power really. _

"I'm tired of waiting, let's do this." Mika twirled her staff and gathered a small amount of magic on the tip. When she felt she had enough she sent bolt of raw energy at the nearest soldier. The attack looked a lot more powerful than it really was. There was just enough force in the magic bolt to knock the soldier off of his horse. While he hit the ground pretty hard the real damage came from him falling off his horse in full armor. Mika might embrace her magical heritage but it wasn't a very powerful heritage.

That one attack started the battle. Each of the remaining soldiers charged forward on their horses, their weapons drawn ready to fight. Being the smart folks that they are, the trio moved out of the path of the charging horses. It was a close call for Sol who had gotten clipped by a sword on the leg. Mika watched her brother for a few seconds making sure that the wound wasn't bad enough to hamper him. He seemed to be doing just fine there was barely any blood near the wound. As the soldiers started to turn their horses for another pass Rin and Sol took the opportunity to attack. Lightning arched from one pistol out to the soldiers while the other sent out a barrage of tiny pebbles at a high velocity. Rin sent arrow after arrow at the soldiers with deadly accuracy. While each attack hit the men their armor wasn't something to laugh at. Pebbles and arrows bounced off like, well like pebbles. Sol's lightning didn't have enough power to do more than cause the soldiers to twitch a bit as they were hit. Mika could tell that Sol had expected his guns to pack a little more of a punch then they were currently producing by the way he was grimacing. By the time they were within range for Rin to be able to accurately shoot the gaps in the armor they had to move out of the way again.

Mika cursed as they dodged out of the way of once again. While they were still on their mounts she wouldn't be able to do much of anything. That's when it hit her, there was still that one soldier knocked down and out by her magic bolt, which meant there was an unoccupied horse somewhere around here just waiting for a rider. Mika started to frantically look around for the beast and spotted it standing next to the rider Mika had blasted. She started to run in that direction only to feel someone grab her arm. Thankfully for Rin Mika had the sense to look and see who it was that had grabbed her before she whacked them.

"Don't be stupid Mika, that horse is probably trained to not let strangers on." Rin's eyes had a hard look in them that Mika hadn't ever seen before. When all of this was said and done Mika was going to have to question Rin on where that look had come from. For the moment she just nodded in understanding. "Good. That does give me an idea though." Rin pulled out an arrow and trained it on the approaching horses. Her blue eyes spoke of death while her breathing slowed down. Just as Mika was about to pull Rin out of the way the blue haired archer let loose her arrow. The metal tip of the arrow found its way into the side of the horse causing the animal to fall down as pain racked through its body.

Still Rin had only taken down one horse of the oncoming group. Sol seemed to have gotten the memo and aimed his Earth Magicite loaded gun at the horses rather than the soldiers on top. While it was slightly cruel to target an animal for simply doing what it was told it was their best chances of staying alive. While the horses were armored they didn't seem to be as heavily armored as their riders. At the speed the stones were going Sol was able to make dents in the armor pushing the metal into the horse's flanks and cause few of them to shy away. Some of the soldiers were smart and got off of their horses before the animals got injured and started after the trio on foot. Mika was more than happy to oblige and give them a good thumping when they got to her. It became clear after a few minutes that the trio was still far from victory. Only two of their opponents were out of the battle and they were starting to feel the drain of dodging the horses before they even got started fighting the soldiers themselves. Rin wasn't equipped for close ranged combat and if Sol used the Thunder Magicite pistol the lightning would sometimes arc to the soldier and then back to Sol so he had quickly placed it back in the holster. At close range the Earth Magicite gun was doing better, it was able to tear into the armor a bit, but not all the way through. Soon they were all three fighting back to back the soldiers forming a circle around them.

"You put up a good fight," the captain said approaching the trio. "But you should know when to admit defeat. You can all live if you agree to come with us back to the capital."

"You promise they'll live?" Mika asked trying to sound a little threatening.

"So long as they don't try to escape they'll be allowed to live." Mika wasn't sure whether to believe him or not but the way things were going she didn't have much of a choice. If they kept on then Rin and Sol were both sure to die in the battle. At least this way there was a chance they would be able to live.

"Fine," Mika agreed tossing her staff onto ground in front of her, "I'll go with you then."

"Mika!" Sol and Rin shouted in disbelief.

"Quiet you two, you'll die if we keep on. Call me a coward or selfish but I'm not seeing you two die for me." Mika tried to act like she was mad but she couldn't hide how thankful she was that they'd all get to see the next day.

"Gather their weapons and tie their hands," the captain instructed before he turned around and got on one of his soldier's horse as his was incapacitated thanks to Rin's first shot. Three soldiers reached into their saddle bags and produced a thick rope from within. The trio had no choice but to comply as their weapons were taken from them and their hands tied behind their backs. While it had been her idea to surrender Mika mumbled about being tied up the entire time. It was part of her plan though, as the soldier was tying her hands together Mika managed to put a small layer of magic between the rope and her wrists. Her mumbling wasn't just incoherent anger, it was to focus the mana in the air around her to bend to her will and create the small cushion. While the space between her and the rope was small it would give her enough room to maneuver with should she need to free her hands.

Once they were tied up and weaponless, no longer considered a danger, the soldiers saddled up on the horses that could still support a rider and started to herd the three in the direction of the Gestaltian Kingdom. None of the Dalmascans knew how far into the country Vector sat but they felt pretty sure in thinking that it'd be a long walk to the capital. Mika knew that she'd need that time to think up a way of escaping. Their best chance of course would be when everyone was asleep, the obstacle to then would be to get past the night shift guards. If these guys were part of the army, or had any brains to spare, they would have a few men stay up through the night to watch out for monsters. Endiness was not very kind to its travelers.

Mika knew it was a small hope but there was the faint glimmer that while they were still in Dalmasca that the city guards around Clestia would find them. They had gone out far enough to avoid the city patrol yet not far enough out to avoid the country patrol. The country patrol was small groups that were roaming around the lands near Clestia to stop things like researchers being kidnapped and to alert the city of any large monster gatherings. Mika mentally cursed at the Dalmascan soldiers, she paid her taxes just like everyone else and yet when she most needed a soldier there wasn't one to be found! Still she resigned herself to trying to figure out a way of escape rather than wait for some miracle that might not happen. Better to take action than wait for something that might not happen. At the moment Mika wouldn't even complain about a swarm of hungry monsters descending on them and eating their fill on the soldiers.

As they walked through the lands of Dalmasca towards the Gestaltian Kingdom the trio made sure to stick together. As luck would have it the soldiers seemed to have no problems letting their "cattle" stay together. Both Sol and Rin looked like they could use a bit of cheering up and Mika couldn't blame them. Being captured and held against your will would put a damper on anyone's day. While she wanted to cheer them up she couldn't think of any way to do so, and she was the most positive one of the three. She could only hope that they knew she had a plan to get them out of this mess. Okay that she had the _start_ of a plan to get them out. She couldn't risk saying anything to them at the moment without the chance of the soldiers overhearing and stopping such them before they were even able to try.

It was times like this, when even she was down, that Mika would take out the small purplish-black stone that her mother had given her on twelfth birthday. It sat in her pocket right now but she couldn't exactly take it out and stare into the dark abyss that seemed trapped inside the stone. Before her parent's death the stone had just been a pretty object that her mother had given. Now the stone had become an item that Mika associated with her past and of a time when she had been so much like her brother, closed up and shy, only opening up to her family. When her parents had died, from a disease that had hit the town, Mika had promised her mother that she would be more open and friendly towards others. Here she was ten years later and Mika had yet to regret that promise. When she looked at her stone she remembered that promise she made, it had become a sort of symbol for the promise.

Night soon fell and while there hadn't been any markers of sorts the trio knew that they were no longer in Dalmasca. Clestia was close enough to the border that it would take more than a few hours to cross into the neighboring kingdom. Considering they had left Clestia in the morning and it was now night they were most definitely in the Gestaltian Kingdom. One perk that Mika found to having her hands tied, she didn't have to help set up the camp. All the men, yep not a single woman much to Mika's disappointment, went about setting up tents and collecting firewood. Sol, Rin, and Mika were all left to watch them go about making camp while two guys stayed to make sure the prisoners didn't try to escape. Mika had seen them playing roshambo to decide who got to watch the three rather than set up camp. It had been the most fun that Mika had seen the soldiers have since her capture. In truth with the amount of time they had spent playing rock, paper, scissors they could have made the camp twice over.

Mika's stomach rumbled in anger as she watched the soldiers chow down on a stew. It looked pretty good though the smell was mediocre. While Mika was fine with missing a meal on a normal day she was pretty hungry at the moment. A fight, walking most of the day, and skipping lunch left her a bit peckish. Sol didn't seemed bothered in the least by the smell of the food but that was probably due to the fact his body was used to skipping at least six meals in a row and had somehow learned to support itself on one meal every three days or so. It was a wonder that Sol wasn't just skin and bone as he read his books and messed around with whatever invention he was working on.

"Yo!" Mika shouted once all the soldiers had sat down and started to eat their stew, complete with biscuits hard as stone. "I take it you want me to be_ alive _when we reach Vector. Gonna need some food for that."

"You'll get our scraps ya bitch," one of the soldiers laughed.

_Oh damn. _Mika thought as she heard the "B" word. _Rin's going to gut him like a fish when she gets the chance. _Glancing over at Rin Mika got confirmation that the bluenette was indeed pissed. Rin didn't like foul language and she hated it even more when it was directed at someone she knew. Calling her girlfriend a bitch was even worse. To put it mildly the look Rin was giving the soldier was one that would maim him in ways that would make it so he'd never have kids. Only after that would he die, in a very painful way, probably some poison that Rin knew that would turn his blood into acid or something equally as painful. Rin was scary when mad and it was why Mika made sure to stay in her good books as often as possible.

True to their word the trio of researchers got what was left of the meal once the soldiers were done. It was more than slightly humiliating being fed their dinner, as their hands were still tied, it beat not having any food though. After they were fed Mika watched the soldiers draw straws to see who would be the unlucky ones that got the middle shift. All Mika could think was that at least they didn't do another round of roshambo to figure it out, it'd be morning by the time they finished. As prisoners the trio wasn't given a thing to sleep on or under. Clear skies and a warm wind made it so there wasn't any real problem about not having a tent, something to put their heads on would have been nice.

Once the first watch had gone to keep a lookout for monsters and everyone else was asleep Mika made her way over to Rin who appeared to be asleep herself. Mika nudged Rin with her shoulder causing her eyes to shoot open. After blinking a few time to have her eyes adjust to the lack of light Rin seemed to relax seeing that it was only Mika next to her and not someone else. Mika tilted her head towards Sol, who was snoring, and they both scooted over to him. Unable to resist Mika shook her brother with her foot for a few seconds before kicking him, lightly, in the leg. Sol sat up and tugged against his restraints as he tried to move his hands so he could rub the sore spot on his leg. Remembering that he couldn't do such he looked to find his attacker and found Mika sitting next to him with a grin on her face with Rin next to her rolling her eyes.

"Alright so we need to figure out a way out of here. No way am I going to Vector for who knows what," Mika made sure to whisper softly so as to not alert anyone to their little pow-wow.

"Good I thought you had gone crazy," Sol whispered back. Mika gave her a brother a look. "Alright fine, crazier."

"Thank you. I managed to leave myself a little wiggle room in my bonds but I'll need you two to keep a lookout so no one sees." Mika already started to wiggle her hands around testing the rope for weak points.

"Then what?" Rin asked seriously.

"We run like hell back towards Clestia," Sol offered up. Mika felt her chest swell with pride at her little brother coming up with a hair brained scheme. "We're on a road now heading northwest. We follow this road in the other direction and we should come across another town. From there we find out which direction Dalmasca is and head home."

"We're going to need our weapons if we're going to be out in the fields alone. If monsters spot a group of three they're going to come after us," Rin reasoned. Everyone looked towards on tent in particular. There was only one guy inside sleeping and the rest of the white cloth tent housed various items such as the horses' saddle bags and more importantly Mika's staff, Sol's guns, and Rin's bow and arrows.

"Just one guy, shouldn't be too hard," Mika said as she managed to slip one hand out from her restraints. With a bit more finagling the blonde was able to get her other hand free from the rope. Rubbing her wrists Mika winced at the pain she felt. She wasn't sure what was worse, having the restraints or the pain having loose restraints caused afterwards. Deciding that it was best to heal her pain rather than save her magic power for a weak attack Mika magically reduced what pain she felt. "Now to get you guys free." Mika moved over to get behind Rin and see about undoing the knot that kept her tied.

"Mika lift up my skirt," Rin instructed. "Th-

"I'm normally up for that but now's not the time Rin," Mika said cutting off anything Rin had been going to say afterwards.

"There's a knife strapped to my left leg," Rin groaned. "If you would have let me finish speaking you would have heard that. Thankfully these guys didn't think to pat me down."

Mika motioned for Sol to turn his head away so he wouldn't see anything before she pulled Rin's skirt up all the way up to her waist. Mid-thigh there was a three inch blade strapped to Rin. It was a black handled blade, the pommel had a hole in it large enough for a woman's slender finger to slip into. Pulling the blade out of the sheath Mika inspected it. The damn thing was draconic steel, recognizable by the scale-like blade, serrated on one side while the other was a normal edge. Draconic steel was the rarest metal in all of Endiness, the secrets of its creation lost to the ages. Many archeologists argued that the last weapon was forged over 14,000 years ago while others stated that they had found ones as new as 300 years ago.

"Rin... how... do you?" Mika stumbled trying to come up with a reason as to why Rin would have such a weapon on her.

"I'll answer when we're safe Sweetie," Rin said leaning over and kissing Mika on the cheek. "Right now we need to get out of here." Mika just nodded her head unable to do anything else at the moment. With a few quick cuts made by the rope fell to the ground in a heap of uselessness. Rin held out her hand for the knife and Mika complied too giving the weapon over to Rin. With a smile on her face Rin headed over and cut Sol, who was still looking away, free of his bonds. "Alright, I'll go get our weapons you two stay here." Rin tried to stay low to the ground and move away from Sol and Mika but was hindered by her skirt. "Darn it, I really liked this one." Before either sibling could ask what Rin meant the sound of tearing cloth could be heard. Rin had turned her ankle length skirt into a very daring mini-skirt, so daring that Mika felt compelled to cover Sol's eyes. "Whoops, didn't mean to take _that _much off."

Two sets of golden eyes just sat in disbelief as what they watched what they thought to be an ordinary girl move across the camp with cat-like grace and stealth. The brother and sister duo shared a quick look that asked the same question, "what the hell?". They had lost sight of Rin not long after she had left them, patched starlight wasn't enough to grant them the light they needed to see the apparently very stealthy woman. It wasn't until Rin appeared up against the white backdrop of the tent that they could see her again. Quickly Rin moved into the tent and Mika lost sight of here again. Within a few seconds Rin popped back out and waved the two over. Mika and Sol looked around pointlessly to see if any soldiers were coming, dark as it was they would have heard them coming before they were able to see them. Reaching Rin and the tent without any problems they all ducked into the tent. Mika felt her boot squish on something as she walked in. She went to look down but felt a soft hand hold her chin up.

"He woke up," Rin said solemnly, "I didn't want to but he would have alerted everyone and then we'd be even worse off than before."

Mika shuddered as she realized that she was standing in some guy's blood. While she didn't sign off on death she understood that Rin had done something that needed to be done. Had the positions been reversed Mika would have done the same in a heartbeat without a second thought. Without any light it was hard to find their belongings and they couldn't risk generating any light else they bring attention to the tent. They were able to find their things by feeling for their shapes since none of the soldiers had specially designed guns or a bow and quiver. Since they were already raiding the tent they decided to grab another set of bags in hopes they held food or gold, something they could use on the road.

Just as Rin found her quiver they saw torch light coming towards them. One of the soldiers was already making his way back to camp. If he was to find them not sleeping where they had been left then things were going to become pretty hectic. Mika watched Rin as she moved to the entrance and slowly pulled back the flap just enough for her to peer out of. Signaling for one of the other two to come over Rin tapped her quiver like she was anticipating needing to draw an arrow. Mika was the one to answer Rin's call and she was wondering just what was going through her girlfriend's head.

"Mika hold the flap please and when I tell you make a weak light alright?" All Mika could do was nod her head. This side of Rin was too new to her for her mind to think up anything else. Rin slowly pulled out an arrow and with Mika holding the tent flap for her she was able to nock an arrow and point the tip out of the tent. While Mika couldn't see what Rin was doing she got the gist of it. Without any light around them it would be hard for the soldier holding the torch to see them, his eyes would be used to the torchlight and have a heck of a time seeing anything in the dark around him. Rin however was in a better position, her eyes were used to the dark and all she needed to do was keep track of where the light was, when she ordered for Mika to make the light she would be able to see her arrow and gauge the path accurately and hopefully fast enough that no one would notice.

"Now Mika," Rin whispered so fast that Mika had almost missed it. Generating a weak light was a simple enough task even running as low on power as she was. A small orb of white energy cast a light over Rin and Mika just bright enough that they could make out the insides of the tent and Mika did a quick check to make sure she had grabbed her staff rather than a lance. In the time that it had taken Mika to check her weapon Rin had fired the shot off into the dark and they heard the body thump down onto the ground. "We have to hurry, someone might have heard that." Rin was standing up at full height and held open the other tent flap. Sol and Mika nodded and the three ran out into the night.

"We should do something about the horses," Sol suggested as they ran by the unarmored animals. "We don't want them chasing after us at that speed do we?"

"He's got a point," Rin agreed as she pulled her knife out, the sheath no longer fully hidden by her skirt. Even trained horses didn't like to be kept tied to the ground by wooden stakes and their reins so when Rin came through and cut the animals and once she smacked one on the butt to get it running the entire group got the idea.

With the horses running around and making a general racket the entire camp started to stir. While it might have been a good idea to get rid of the horses it was also the very thing that might have cost them their freedom. Sol and Mika waited for Rin to catch up to them before they all three ran away from the camp. Right now they didn't exactly care where they were going, they just wanted to get away from the soldiers and their one way trip to Vector. As they ran they could hear what they assumed to be the captain shouting at his men for letting two _girls_ escape. If she had the time Mika would have made a quip about how women were just as good at escaping as men were. Right now though she was saving all her breath for running as far as she could manage, it was a race against trained soldiers that probably had quite the bit of stamina and weren't tired from walking all day.

Only a few minutes away from the camp the luck they had so far turned very sour. One of the guards that had been patrolling the area jumped out in front of them. The trio shied back from the man being blinded by the sudden light and a little scared by the man suddenly in front of them. Mika moved out in front and whipped her staff around to grab it with both hands. She rolled her eyes when she saw that the soldier didn't have a sword on his waist, instead he had a lance in his hand. With a torch in one hand he would be severely hindered in his ability to fight. Still their luck wasn't finished turning on them. In the time it had taken them to get ready to attack the lone soldier a few from the camp had managed to catch up.

"Damn it, surrounded again," Mika cursed not caring what Rin might think, if she even cared at the moment.

"I don't care what the situation is Mika, no cursing." Rin did care at the moment.

"Really Rin? I think something a little more vile than damn is warranted here," Sol backed his sister up as he pulled his pistols out of their holsters letting the leather cases fall to the ground.

"I do plan to one day have kids you know, don't want Mika teaching them such language."

"I'd love to debate having kids with ya Rin but first let's get out of _this _situation," Mika joked as she watched the soldiers draw their weapons. "Cause unless we get some divine intervention we're screwed." Whatever god Mika prayed to had heard her plea for help. A bright deep purple light emitted from her pocket.

"She couldn't be," was all Mika heard Rin say before she felt herself go into an uncontrollable rage.

**(A/N): **Okay not really a cliffhanger as I'm sure you know what's happening to Mika but it's a great stopping spot. For those of you who read these A/Ns I would like to let you know that the next chapter is done! All it takes is a review from someone who is NOT The Unknowing Herald or Wood Dog. If I get that then the next chapter is up as soon as I read the review. If not then I'll post whenever I feel like it.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter V

Terra stood and watched as energy shot out from her palm and towards the soldier only to dissipate a few inches from his chest. She couldn't bring herself to do it. If she stunned him he could be out here for hours and there were clearly monsters roaming around. They both just stood there looking at each other, brown eyes staring into violet ones. The soldier was the first one to make a move. Slowly he sheathed his sword and Terra felt a wave of relief wash over her, he wasn't going to make her fight him. Next the man opened his hand and showed her item that he'd been clutching. Terra had seen enough of the crystals to know that he was holding a healing magicite, he opened a pouch tied to his waist and dropped it inside. Terra tensed as he reached into the same pouch and started to pull something out. Her mind raced with ideas of what he could be pulling out of the pack, did he have a gun or something stashed inside? She wasn't prepared to see that he was pulling out the shoe she had lost.

"You dropped this," the man said holding out the shoe. His face had turned a light shade of red as he held out the heel. Terra could see that the strap had indeed broken and that was how she ended up losing it. It was more than confusing though to have him present her the item. Wasn't he sent to capture her, if he was, then why was he doing this?

"T-Thank you," Terra said softly as she walked up to him and reached out for her shoe. Just before she grabbed a hold of it she saw the man's shoulders tense up. Instinct kicked in and Terra leapt backwards far out of the soldiers reach. She had almost allowed herself to be caught over a simple shoe.

"I'm not going to take you into custody, at least not yet," the man assured her tossing her the shoe. "My name is Shin Verus, Captain in the Gestaltian army. I need to know, why does the King want you badly enough that he'd mobilize the entire army?"

"I don't know," Terra answered honestly. She had a guess though, someone had probably put the pieces together and figured out that wherever Terra went destruction soon followed. Shin's King probably wanted her either locked up or killed to prevent the mass annihilation of people that she seemed to cause. She couldn't have that, they were wrong, she wasn't the one destroying the towns it was the creature that haunted her in her sleep. If what Shin had said was true and that the entire Gestaltian army had been sent out to capture her than she needed to get back to Dalmasca where as far as she knew she wasn't being hunted.

"Can you at least tell me your name?" Shin asked her politely.

"It's Terra Branford," she answered just as kindly as he asked.

"Alright Terra," the way Shin was talking to her reminded Terra of how she would talk to a scared animal. His voice was soft and caring like he trying to assure her that everything was going to be alright even if he didn't know for sure. "Can you tell me why you're running away from me?"

"I can't go to jail. There's something I have to do first," Terra replied earnestly.

"Terra please come with me to the capital. I want answers and I have a feeling you do too. If you're worried about going to jail I'll do everything in my power to make sure that doesn't happen." Shin looked at her with pleading eyes. She couldn't understand why he was so intent on taking her in. Yes she wanted answers but the King wouldn't have the answers that she was looking for. He wouldn't be able to tell her about the monster that was following her around. The King would just sentence her to living her life in a jail until the creature came and laid waste to the city.

"I can't, I can't go to the capital with you Shin. I won't find the answers there. The only thing that'll happen is more death!" Terra clasped her hands over her mouth. She hadn't meant to say that.

"What do you mean Terra? Why would there be more deaths if you were taken to the capital?" Shin's voice had gone hard now; he probably had taken Terra's words as a threat.

"There's... there's this creature that follows me around." Terra had decided to dive all in, she couldn't think of another way to explain it then the truth. "I haven't seen it but I know it's real. Whenever I stay in a town for more than a few days it comes and kills everyone but me. It always comes after I fall asleep and when I wake up I find myself in a field, in the mountains, or more recently in the ocean."

"How do you know this creature is real and why would it spare you?" Shin asked skeptically. Terra couldn't blame him, it did sound like a farfetched story.

"There's no proof that it exists I only see it in my dreams, but how else would you explain all the killings while I come out unscathed? I wish I knew why it let me live. This has been going on for thirteen years!" Terra's vision went blurry as tears started to form in her eyes. All the death that had happened throughout her life was creeping back up on her. She did her best not to focus on it and to think on how to save lives by finding the creature instead. Still there were times, like now, when the weight came crashing down on her. Terra sank down to her knees and started to cry as she remembered families that had been kind to her over the years that now lay dead all because they had taken a young girl into their home. They had just done a good deed and were repaid with having their lives cut short. It wasn't right that she got to live while all of them died. Terra felt like she owed all those people, she would do her best to find the monster and stop it from ending any more lives.

* * *

Shin didn't know what to do. The story this girl Terra was telling him was unbelievable but here she was breaking down in front of him. Either she was really good at acting or she genuinely thought that there was a monster following after her doing these things. Why though, would King Ghestalh want such a dangerous girl back in the capital? There was no denying that the girl was a threat to the capital if she was brought there, it fit with what little he knew about her. If she was lying about the beast then it was probably her own power and sadistic tendencies that leveled towns, Shin remembered a report a few years back where a town was completely wiped out in a single night. Then there was the possibility that she was telling the truth and there was a destructive _thing_ following after her. Should such a force exist and come to Vector the army wouldn't be able to handle it. King Gestalh may think that his army is invincible but there were too many lost each year to monsters as it was. Why he'd put his people at such risk Shin couldn't understand.

Still to watch this girl break down like that, it just added to Shin's confusion. Warrior training and a tad bit of common sense told him that she was dangerous. Looking at her right now though with tears streaming down her cheeks as she sobbed she looked nothing more than a normal girl, albeit a very beautiful girl. Though he was feeling a little unsure as to if she was telling the truth or not Shin knew that he had to do something to help her. Moving over to the sobbing girl Shin crouched down next to her, in the back of his mind he was asking himself why he was doing this. Terra didn't seem to notice in the least that Shin had moved next to her she was so overcome with the pain of her memories. Reaching out towards her Shin gently placed a gloved hand on her slender shoulder. That simple touch seemed to get through to Terra, the next Shin knew there was a blonde girl tackling him for lack of a better term. She hadn't knocked him over but she did knock him into a sitting position. Terra had wrapped her arms around him and started to cry into his chest, she didn't seem to care that she was crying into his chestplate or that Shin was still in his armor, she just needed the contact with another human being.

Looking at the girl on his lap crying into him Shin felt his doubt ebb away. To think that this frail little girl purposefully caused the destruction of towns was downright crazy, and Shin knew to help the fragile woman in front of him Shin wrapped his arms comfortingly around her and rubbed her back soothingly. Unable to look at more than Terra's hair Shin's mind went to the next sense on the list, scent. He could smell the road on her, dirt and sweat, along with the faint smell of a dog or maybe a cat, some furry animal. Underneath it all Shin could faintly smell what he believed to be apples. It was an odd and refreshing smell out here in the wilderness amongst the freshly killed wargs. The smell of apples brought back memories of when Shin was a kid and how his parents would always give him a bright red one as a treat. Shin felt a pain in his chest at the memory of his family, it had been a long time since he'd seen either his parents or his younger brother.

With nothing more to do than sit there and wait for Terra to calm down Shin continued to rub her back soothingly. After a few minutes the sobs started to subside and Terra pulled herself away from Shin. Her violet eyes sparkled in the sunlight with the remnants of her tears. Looking into those violet orbs Shin could see innocence, and just how beautiful Terra was. Wiping away the remaining tears Terra seemed to realize where she was and what she had done. She got up off of Shin quickly and started to quickly mutter apologies about her actions. Shin felt himself smile as he got up, before he had known it he had decided that he couldn't turn her over to the King.

"It's alright Terra," Shin assured her even though now that he thought about it he just had a girl sitting in his lap. Blood rushed to Shin's cheeks heating up his face and thankfully Terra seemed oblivious to it.

"What are you going to do now Shin? I can't come with you to the capital," Terra stated as forcefully as she could muster, which was pretty weak as she still hadn't fully recovered. She was starting to become a little scared, her mannerisms showing it, one foot placed behind the other, her body turned slightly so she'd have a headstart should she need to run, along with her eyes seeming to try and gather as much about her surroundings as they could.

"I don't know what I'm going to do exactly," Shin told her honestly. "I agree that you can't come back to the capital, it's too dangerous. It does leave the question of what to do." Shin stood and pondered what his next move was going to be. Letting Terra wonder around the world alone was also out of the question. Since he was choosing to believe that she wasn't the one causing the destruction that left the fact that there _was _a monster of sorts running around out there killing whole towns. If such a thing was running around the world then there should at least be some. Logically the next plan of attack would be doing their best to find out about the creature. "Terra, I need you to tell me as much about this creature as you can."

"There's not much to tell, I've only seen it in my dreams." Terra looked unsure of herself, like even she was starting to doubt the existence of such a beast.

"Anything is helpful Terra," Shin told her confidently. He couldn't have her start doubting her own story. If she did she would resign herself to getting caught by the army which could end up spelling disaster.

"Okay," Terra said hesitantly, "it looks like a human covered in purple fur with the tips colored black. It has blood red eyes and black claws. Each time I see it, it's the same scene. It's burning Narshe to the ground." Shin could see that Terra was fighting back more tears as she tried to stay strong. "The creature treats the people's suffering like a game, it even licks the blood off of its claws."

"Alright Terra," Shin said stopping her from saying any more. He had a description of the monster at least. He didn't need to know how it went about doing what it did nor did he need Terra to suffer through thinking about it. "Have you heard _anything _about such a creature?"

Terra sadly shook her head. "I try not to stay near people, I'm never around long enough to listen to rumors."

"Then we should head to a town near one that you remember having been destroyed. There'd be a good chance that someone lived and headed to the next town." Shin felt confident in his decision. He would find this monster and bring it to justice rather than subject an innocent girl to court justice. Normally Shin agreed with the court's rulings but he knew that Terra wouldn't receive a fair trial should she be taken to the capital.

"We?" Terra asked clearly shocked at the fact Shin was offering to help her.

"Or course. Two heads are better than one. Besides I can't let a young woman like yourself wander around the countryside all alone can I?" Shin sounded far more confident than he felt. He wasn't exactly the best around women. They didn't scare him per say but they did make him a tad uncomfortable. Shin had spent most of his life training to be a soldier like his dad and that hadn't offered him many chances to interact with the fairer sex. Which meant that when it dawned on Shin that he'd be traveling alone with a woman, his mind went into panic mode. To save him the mystical force known as fate made it so that Shin's squad caught up with him at this point in time. They all noticed the color of Terra's hair instantly and they got their weapons ready as they started running down the hill to reach their captain and the girl that would bring them a peaceful life.

Shin had his back to the approaching soldiers but the clanking of their armor was a dead giveaway as they approached. Turning around Shin lost all sense of panic at traveling with a beautiful girl and switched into captain mode. His face went stoic as he rounded on his charging men. Holding up his hand Shin stared them down until they came to an abrupt halt a few feet from their leader. All twenty-five of them looked at Shin with confusion written on their faces. Without so much as a word Shin could tell what the group was asking him and he planned to address it right away.

"This isn't the girl we're looking for. I know she looks close but we're looking for a girl on nineteen, she's twenty-three," Shin lied. His squad was a group of good men but that cash reward would be too big of a temptation for them to resist turning her in. He hated doing this to his own men but it was the right thing to do and that gave Shin the courage and drive to say what he needed to say. "She has an idea of where the girl is headed though. I will head in that direction while you men head back and report to the general that we have a lead on the location of the girl. From what she," Shin gestured to Terra, "has told me no one squad is going to be able to bring the girl in." Both Shin's squad and Terra looked at him in confusion.

"But captain, why are you going to go after her alone?" One of the eldest members of the group asked.

"Because I'm only going to keep an eye on her. As you men know the general has a way to locate all the captains for use in times of war." Each and every captain's cape had a tracer spell weaved into it and it was well known by many of the soldiers in the army. The spell was only to be used in emergencies but the general could have the court mages look for captains by the spell on their capes to redirect help in times of war. "The town where the girl is at is small, even me going alone is risky of being spotted. Taking another one of you with me would be dangerous."

"I see," the same soldier that had voiced his concern replied. "In that case we'll head back to the capital and request reinforcements." All the men saluted to their captain ready to carry out his orders.

"Thank you all. I expect to see _all _of you when we next meet." Shin made sure to stress the "all" part. He had trained with these men for near eight years and he didn't want to see a single one of them die of anything other than old age.

"Can we talk with you alone first captain?" Another one of the soldiers asked, this one only a few years older than Shin. Shin looked over at Terra and mouthed for her to wait there. He jogged over to his men and was soon trapped in a group huddle. Each of his older friends looked at Shin with a grim serious face. "'ight Captain, now you best be on good behavior. That's a fine looking lass over there and she looks right innocent. We understand that younger fellows like yaself need to have a little fun but we and your pa will gut ya should we catch wind of any funny business."

"You make an honest woman out of her before you do anything Shin Verus or there'll be hell to pay," the eldest member warned his captain.

Shin couldn't believe that he was being read the riot act. He hadn't even thought about doing anything like that with Terra. Not once had he even given the impression that he would treat _any _girl like that and yet here he was being told to make an "honest woman" of Terra before doing anything with her. Letting out a sigh and hanging his head Shin heard the laughter of his men echoing around him.

"We're just foolin' with ya Captain. We know ya ain't going to do anything with 'er permission." One of the men said through his laughter.

Once Shin's men were done teasing their youthful captain they bid farewell to him and Terra, though they all called her "young miss" since they didn't know her name. Terra said goodbye to each of them as they passed her by and she even patted Shin's horse as he snorted his goodbye to the young girl. Shin hadn't noticed the beast of burden at first until it had said its goodbyes to Terra, it completely ignored him the entire time. Still, Shin was happy to see that the animal had been rescued and no harm had befallen it.

"Why did you lie?" Terra asked after all the soldiers were well out of earshot.

"There's a large reward for turning you in. The squad that does it is rewarded with enough gold for their family to live off of comfortably for the rest of their lives. Many of those men have three kids and it's hard to feed them on a soldier's pay." Shin was looking off in the direction that his men had gone silently praying that they would make it home safe and sound.

"What about you?" Terra asked softly.

"Let's just say Dad wouldn't approve of how I got the money no matter how good my intentions were." Shin turned and smiled at Terra. "I know this is a hard question Terra, but can you remember the name of any town that you know to be destroyed by the creature?"

"Jidoor," Terra replied solmnly.

-o-O-o-

A young man, in the end of his teenage years, walked into town. He wore the grey chestplate of a soldier but no other armor. On his back was a large sword that almost scrapped the ground. This large blade was metallic and seemed to be made of mythril, the metal of the nobles. It's hilt was wrapped in white leather, the handguard was the normal T shape. Both the round pommel and a spot where blade met handguard you could see a place for something to be inserted. Sitting on the teen's waist were two shorter swords. One of them was an orange blade that looked to be made out of bones rather than metal, the blade was wide and the handguard had small spikes coming off of it. The other blade was a slightly smaller and thinner black sword of the same design. He had spiky dark red hair and his sky-blue eyes darted around like he was searching for something or someone. From how muscled he was none of the citizens in the town had any doubt that he'd be able to swing the massive sword on his back.

The town was more of a large village on the border of being called a small town. Its population was going about their normal daily chores trying their best to ignore the armed soldier walking among them. They had seen a group of soldier pass by not four days ago and yet again they had another one of the King's men walking through their fair town. For a town that rarely got soldier passing through it was an unnerving occasion. Everyone was thinking that they had done something wrong to warrant the King's attention but none of them could think of what they had done. All had paid their taxes and when the previous group had come through they had answered all of the nice captain's questions.

A group of young kids, who didn't know that soldiers are scary, were kicking a ball around the town center, which was an open area with a large tree and grass growing around it. One of the kids kicked the ball too hard and sent it flying at the armed soldier. A gasp came from the mothers who were sitting on their porch watching their children play. Without even looking in the direction of the flying orb the soldier reached out and caught it before he was hit.

"Sorry mister!" the kid who had kicked the ball shouted. "I didn't mean to kick it so hard, can we please have our ball back?!" The soldier turned to face the kids, everyone expected to see the soldier frowning or seething with rage that the ball had been kicked at him. Instead they saw a large smile plastered on his face.

"Here you go," the soldier yelled as he tossed the ball back effortlessly back to the kids. The one that had kicked it caught the ball and soon they were all back to playing their game like nothing had happened.

Everyone in the village seemed to let out their breath at once as they watched the kids go back to playing. They had all taken the arrival of the soldier as a bad thing, not a one of them seemed to have thought that it was nothing to worry about. Turning back around the soldier headed through the town square and in the direction of the mayor's house, distinguished by the sign in front of the house that clearly stated "Mayor's House". Like most houses of important people it was slightly larger than the other houses owned by the normal folk in the village. In this village all the houses were made out of large logs, it made sense as the town the soldier had passed through before this one was a logging town. They weren't more than two days travel away from each other. At such close distances it only stood to reason that the two villages would share resources. The door had a small window at eye-level that let the soldier peer in. He knocked on the wooden door and watched as a twig of a girl came out of a room and down the hall to the door.

"Hello stranger, what can I do for you today?" the woman asked sweetly. The woman had short black hair, cut above her ears, and light green eyes. An emerald dress covered her curvaceous body with a brown belt that made the dress hug her flat stomach. This woman was a sight to behold and from the way she held herself, she knew it. Everything about the way she was standing told the soldier that she knew how good she looked. Her chest was thrust out unnaturally so and she stepped forward so as to give him a better look at what she had to offer. It'd be a lie to say he wasn't intrigued but it was no fun if the woman took all the chase out of it.

"I need to talk with the mayor about a group of soldiers that came passing through here a few days ago," the soldier said looking down at the woman uninterested.

"Anna let the man in," a male voice from inside the house called out.

Anna wrapped herself around the soldier's arm and led him into the house. The hallway was large but not wide enough for two people to walk side by side like that comfortably. There was only one way that Anna and the soldier could have gotten any closer, and that idea was clearly running through Anna's mind. She lead soldier-boy into the living room where an older version of Anna and an middle aged man sat, they were both assumedly Anna's parents. Very little doubt that the woman was Anna's mother. The man had a receding hairline that had claimed about half of black hair his blues eyes were dull but if you looked closely you could see a fire still burning inside.

"Sorry about my daughter," the man said motioning for Anna to let go, "she tends to cling to people."

"It's fine," the soldier said glad that Anna was off of him.

"Please have a seat," the woman said pointing out a chair across from them. The room had a hearth in it like most living rooms do. There were four cushioned chairs placed around a square wooden table. It looked to be a small unused room, it was more likely used for greeting guest rather than where the family actually spent their time. Even still it had a "lived in" feeling to it and the chair wasn't hard and new, there was a worn groove in the cushion. The soldier slung his greatsword off and propped it up against the chair before he sat down in it, the swords on his hips were far enough apart so as to not slice into the furniture.

"If you don't mind be straight forward, what are you doing here young sir?" the man asked.

"I'm looking for a group of soldiers that would have passed this way. Their leader would have looked like me. His hair is longer than mine and brown, his eyes are brown to."

"Ah yes, Shin Verus and his squad. They were very kind to us while they were here. Treated us with respect they did." The man seemed to be recalling how kind they were like it was years ago rather than only a few days.

"You'll have to excuse my husband. He suffered a head wound a few years back and it's messed with his memory," the woman said leaning in and whispering just loud enough for the soldier to hear her. Nodding in understanding the soldier sat back in his chair. Now that he looked at the man, he could see a faint scar on his head. It was probably where he'd gotten hit and from the looks of it the cause of his baldness.

"What do you want with Shin?" Anna asked quickly. She had a look of panic on her face, almost like she Shin's girlfriend and this armed soldier was out to hunt her beloved.

"I have my reasons," the soldier replied curtly.

"I'm sorry young sir. While my daughter's outburst was wrong I do have to ask why you need to find Captain Shin." The woman looked at him expectantly. She wasn't going to give any information until she knew why Shin was being looked for.

"Alright, I'm his younger brother. Kaiser Verus," the soldier said looking the woman in the eye. "I have reason to believe my brother's in danger. He's going to need my help and _his _sword," Kaiser pointed to the greatsword next to him, "not the sad excuse that passes for a officer's sword."

"In that case I will be more than happy to point you in the direction your brother left young Kaiser."

**Character Corner:**

Kaiser Verus

Age: 18

Owner: The Unknowing Herald

Like his older brother Shin, Kaiser went into the military. He strives to be better than his older brother and well do it in his own way. He's stubborn and argumentative but underneath it all lies a heart of gold. Now something has driven him to disobey the orders of the military he serves in an attempt to find his brother. What news does Kaiser have that's do important?


	6. Chapter 6

(A/N): It's my birthday! So if you read a few of my stories you'll see this message elsewhere today. If it's not too much trouble, and I know it isn't, leave me a review as your birthday gift to me. Now to go play Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate for the 3DS.

Chapter VI

_Three months ago, about the time Shin leaves to go find Terra. _

Kaiser placed his blunt practice blade up against the wall. His training partner hadn't been able to keep up with him this time around. They had only been using the standard training swords in their fight and he had beaten his opponent easily. That's what happened when the Drill Sergeant made him spar with the rookies. Kaiser was still considered a rookie himself since he wasn't assigned to a squad yet. His skills were on par with some of the Captains but Kaiser had more than a few problems with following orders. Numerous times they would assign the recruits tasks to prove their skill, strength, or stamina and Kaiser would go out of his way to make the challenge harder. While it showed how powerful or creative Kaiser could be it also showed that he wasn't ready to become part of a squad where following orders were important. That's what Serg always told him when he asked why he wasn't allowed to join the army after the last exam. For now the Drill Sergeant simply made use of Kaiser to show the rookies just how weak they were to other members of the army. Only a few of the older recruits got to fight Kaiser with his preferred weapon, dual blades.

The training grounds of the Vector Military Base were nothing more than a large dirt area. Located near the outer walls of the castle they were completely boxed in with only the door to the barracks as a way out. In the center of the field was a rectangular rock where the Sergeant would have recruits duel. Landing on the stone could hurt worse than the blow you received from your opponent. While the dirt field was large there were too many recruits to be trained properly in the seemingly small area. Doing laps around the area was especially hard when you had to avoid the sparring trainees. Serg called it a part of training and as odd as it might sound. The older recruits had gotten good at dodging the fights as they did their laps.

"Verus, come here!" the Drill Sergeant barked. He was a toned man with a few scars on his face from life in the field. While he was currently wearing a shirt, he sometimes took it off on hot days, you could see old claw marks and a few scars made by something sharper, like a sword blade. He had his black hair cut as close to his head as possible and still not be considered bald. Cold hazel eyes stared directly at Kaiser as if begging for him to make a mistake that he could be called out on. Following Serg's, yep he made people call him that, instructions Kaiser started towards him. "Bring the sword we don't need the thing fallin' over on us," Serg added.

Heading back without complaint Kaiser grabbed the sword and went to go see what Serg wanted of him now. Last time he had been told to bring his blade to Serg he had ended up fighting against the old man to prove his abilities. Kaiser had been allowed to use dulled dual swords in the previous battle but from how the fight ended in a draw he had doubts that he would be able to this time around. Serg liked to make a point that no matter how powerful the adversary they could be brought down if you could outwit them. If Kaiser could force a draw with him than Serg couldn't very well show that point.

"Yes Serg?" Kaiser asked when he reached the man, remembering to salute before he spoke.

"General Geoffrey will be coming down to inspect the recruits. He insists that I have a duel between the top two students when he gets here. While you are without a doubt the _strongest_ recruit here you are not the best," Serg had a grim look on his face just waiting for Kaiser to go on about how unfair that was. Kaiser was about to unload just such an opinion on Serg when the two recruits there were to participate in the duel approached. Both were guys, not many women made it into the army as they were viewed as the weaker sex, with short black hair. Like Serg they had their hair trimmed down to insanely short and hazel eyes. They were twins as you might imagine and they were the sons of Serg. They were trained from as soon as they could pick up a sword by their father and had been raised in a militaristic lifestyle.

"Serg," one of the twins, Fai, said, "let me fight Kaiser. I will be able to beat him this time." The last fight hadn't even been close. Kaiser had been able to beat down the guy within two minutes before he was too injured to continue. Blunted blades may not be able to slice off an arm but they could break the bone easily enough. Fai had spent a week in the infirmary before he was allowed to return to the training grounds. He still couldn't use his arm but he was allowed to run around and attempt to use his other arm. Attempt was the keyword there as he only injured himself more trying to swing a sword around with his weaker hand.

"Fai!" His brother Fadi shouted. "I thought the plan was to take him on together, we don't want a repeat of the last time." From the face Fai made and how he started to rub his sword arm he remembered just how painful his last fight against Kaiser had been. It hadn't been long enough that Fai could have gotten better enough that he would be able to win.

"The General only wants two people to fight Fadi," their father said. "Beside I-"

"I don't have any problems taking them both on," Kaiser said looking at the twins then back at Serg. "Just have to decide on if I want to use dual swords or if a single blade will be enough for them." Kaiser couldn't resist taunting the twins. They were respected by the other recruits for the combat abilities but so far they had yet to make much of an assault against Kaiser in a one on one match. He was hoping that two on one would make the fight more interesting.

"I have no objects to it either," another voice added in. Standing in the doorway to the barracks was the commander of the Kingdom's entire army, Geoffrey. He wore dark blue armor with gold trimming with a green-tan leather underneath. His chestplate only covered the upper half of his torso leaving his middle open. Knee high armored boots protected his legs while two pieces hung from his waist offering some protection to his upper legs without hindering his movement. A large battle axe was strapped to his back, one of the few people allowed to carry his weapon. He had average length golden blonde hair and dark blue eyes. "If you've been hiding such a powerful man among the recruits then I need to see his power for myself."

"Alright Verus, get ready and head to the ring," Serg commanded.

Kaiser jogged over to the weapons rack by the barrack entrance and exchanged his standard longsword for two pair of dual blades. The two swords were lighter due to their length being shorter than the blade Kaiser had just put back. Lighter swords meant for faster attacks but they didn't have the weight to help push through enemy defenses. Kaiser was able to make up for this with his own natural strength. Some people might say that two blades are better than one and while that wasn't always the case, it certainly was for Kaiser. Figuring that with two opponents with that actually had some skill he would need some protection Kaiser ran into the barracks and grabbed a leather chest plate to absorb some of the force of any attack that got through.

Outfitted and ready to beat the twins in record time Kaiser headed towards the ring. Like any school yard fight the entirety of the training grounds gathered around to see what was going on. Everyone made sure that Serg and the General had a good view of the fight, there was a fifteen foot gap between the two and the nearest trainee. A fight among the strongest members of the group was bound to catch the eyes of the knight-in-training and even cold hearted Serg knew that he couldn't do anything to stop them from watching.

Both Fai and Fadi were using a longsword, just like dear ol' pop, and were covered in full leather armor. Chest, legs, arms, and Fadi even had a shield, Kaiser took at as a sign they wanted to go all out during the fight, why else would they bother to protect everything like that after all. Fai had a serious look on his face that spoke volumes about how much he hated Kaiser for beating him the last time. Fadi on the other hand looked distracted, he kept glancing over at his brother to check on him. They may think they were ready to fight but from the simple looks of things their minds weren't fully focused on the duel which could end badly for them.

Serg gave the okay to start the fight and Fai charged. He left himself wide open in his rage, Kaiser was easily able to sidestep the attack and return with an attack of his own to Fai's chest. The blow was strong enough that Fai let out a grunt as Kaiser's sword connected with the leather armor. Fadi had anticipated his brother's reckless charge and was right there to attack Kaiser. Bringing up his free blade Kaiser was able to block Fadi's attack. Fai fell to the ground freeing up Kaiser's other hand letting him take a swing at Fadi's open side. Fadi wasn't the fool that his brother was though. He had been ready for Kaiser's attack and managed to twist of the way before the sword could connect with him.

When dealing with two opponents it's best to find the weaker one and deal with them first so they don't cause to lose focus as you fight the tougher foe, this was what all the soldiers had been taught. Fai was the current weaker of the two twins his rage would make his moves easy to read. He might be one of the top trainees but he still gave into his rage too quickly, it was the thing holding him back from promotion into a full soldier. On the other hand, Fadi was too careful. He lacked the courage to strike out against a foe on his own unless he was sure he could win. This only changed when he fought alongside his brother. No matter the challenge Fadi would fight alongside Fai giving it all that he could muster. If Kaiser was able to knock out Fai, or get him to concede defeat, then Fadi would lose his edge. In this particular case getting rid of the weak link made the stronger link vastly weaker.

Fai got up and Kaiser found himself facing both of the twins, one in front of him with the other to his side. Looking at Fadi for a brief second Kaiser launched himself over towards Fai who was still getting into a ready position. Bringing his stronger right hand down on Fai he wasn't shocked when the blade was blocked. Kaiser brought his other sword down on Fai's blade and started raining down blows on him. The sound of metal clashing on metal covered the sounds of Fadi approaching but Kaiser had counted on the other brother coming to his sibling's aid. A few seconds too late Kaiser went to avoid Fadi's attack only to be caught in the arm by the blunt blade. Kaiser had thought for sure that the shield twin wouldn't have responded so quickly. In a real fight it would have been a more costly mistake as there would be a large gash on Kaiser's shoulder but in this duel all he got was a large pain that shot through his arm for a few seconds before it turned into a throb.

Taking advantage of the opening his brother had created Fai went for another go at Kaiser who was still able to block the attacks with his good arm. Once Kaiser had gotten used to the throbbing in his right arm he was able to take an experimental swing at Fai to see how much pain it put him in. Not only was Fai caught off guard by Kaiser attacked with his injured arm he was unable to block the surprise attack taking a blow to his own shoulder. As he yelped in pain Kaiser used his left blade to crack down on Fai's left side. Fadi once again was there to support his brother and swung his shield out in front of Kaiser's third strike blocking it from connecting with Fai's right arm. Fai moved back out of the way and let Fadi take Kaiser on. Kaiser was able to beat back Fadi's sword with his own blade when he wasn't able to outright avoid the attack but the speed at which the shield bearing twin attacked wasn't something that Kaiser had been ready for.

It was during this assault that Kaiser could feel something in the back of his mind. Kaiser's sixth sense was telling him that magic was being used somewhere around him. In the heat of battle it was tough to pinpoint but considering that no one other than the twins were doing anything it was pretty clear that at least one of them was using magic. Unless stated otherwise magic wasn't allowed in duels, it was considered bad form since magic was so varied between individuals. However, something was clearly affecting Fadi's speed. He had never moved that fast before in any session that Kaiser had seen. Geoffrey and Serg didn't seem like they were going to call the twins out on it either. That suited Kaiser just fine. If he beat them when they were using magic without using any himself then he would really be able to prove how strong he was.

Fadi soon started to slow down, whatever magic he'd or Fai had been using having started to dissipate. Dodging Fadi's next attack Kaiser made his way towards Fai. He still had to beat them both and if they were going to be using magic the sooner he did so the better. They might not be strong enough to beat him in an outright duel but if they added magic there was a good chance that they would be able to. Since Fai had been hanging back the entire time it was a good guess that he had been the one casting the speed magic. Kaiser was going to teach him a lesson about disobeying the rules of the duel and he was going to literally beat the lesson into Fai. This time Fai was ready for Kaiser's attack but even still it didn't help him against the onslaught that happened. Kaiser unleashed everything he had in a series of quick blows annihilating Fai's defenses. Swing both of his swords Kai slammed them into Fai's shoulders which caused him to drop his weapon. Placing one sword at Fai's throat Serg had no choice but to declare that Kaiser had managed to "kill" Fai.

With only one more to go Kaiser knew that he had the match in the bag. Against Fadi though he was going to have to contend with his shield. Fadi played to his advantage and would block with the shield until he saw an opening he was sure he could exploit. His swordsmanship left something to be desired but he made up for it with his shieldwork. Fadi had the stamina to deal with a long drawn out fight and that's what made him one of the best recruits. If Kaiser wanted to win this he was going to have to get past the shield without expending all of his energy. Brute strength wasn't going to be what won the battle, speed and endurance would be the deciding factors.

Taking the initiative Kaiser brought the fight to Fadi. As expected when Kaiser brought down his right blade it was blocked by the leather shield. Leather was good for absorbing some of the kinetic force that hit it but it still transferred a good amount of the energy into the person holding it. Fadi's arm moved back a few inches as it tried to absorb the full force of Kaiser's attack. Kaiser had purposely left his left side open for Fadi to perform a counterattack. Expecting the attack Kaiser was able to move out of the sword's path as Fadi stabbed. Making the mistake of moving his shield far enough away from his body that Kaiser could attack, Fadi found Kaiser's sword darting in between his own defenses stabbing him in the chest. While the blades were blunt their points could still pierce skin, as evident by the blood the trickled down Fadi's chest. Kaiser didn't let up either as he brought his other sword down on Fadi's sword arm. The cracking of bone could be heard throughout the training grounds. Falling to the ground Fadi clutched his arm in pain, the wound on his chest had only been deep enough to just cause blood to trickle down.

"Good job Kaiser," General Geoffrey clapped his hands as he looked at the twins. The crowd around the ring dispersed and went back to what they had been doing. With the match over they no longer had an excuse to be standing around. Serg would be pissed beyond all reason now that his sons had lost. "Makes me wonder why you've been kept down here with all these recruits when you could be lending you power to the army." Geoffrey turned his gaze to Serg. He looked down on the man with rage clearly visible on his face.

"Well you seen General, the boy can't follow orders. I'm not supposed to clear anyone unless they meet the criteria," Serg tried his best to puff out his chest and act like he was a big man. Serg really had just been following orders from the higher up. If he felt that the recruits did not fit the criteria that were given to him he was allowed to hold them back and try to beat some sense into them.

"He can learn in the field just how important following orders are. If he can beat your top students single handedly with barely a scratch on him then I think he's ready," Geoffrey had crossed his arms and started looking over at Kaiser who was still standing in the ring listening intently to what was going on. From what he was hearing the General wanted him put into the army rather than staying back in boot camp for another week. "Honestly I wouldn't be surprised if you were holding young Verus here for your imagined rivalry with his father."

Yep the classic, I'll get revenge on this guy by giving his children hell technique. It's employed by cowards and chickens the world over. Kaiser's father, Rex Verus, had been the previous General before Geoffrey and had given Serg a hard time about holding recruits back even though they were ready. Officially Rex hadn't reported a thing hoping that Serg would start giving the trainees their due. For a while it had worked and the army saw a small swell in their numbers. However family matters had caused Rex to step down from his position and it hadn't taken long after that for Serg to go back to his old habits of holding back those he didn't like.

"Well Verus, looks like you'll be joining the army," Geoffrey said turning and smiling at the newest addition to the Kingdom's army.

"You don't get to decide that General, according to the law only the Drill Sergeant in charge of the recruits is allowed to decide if they are ready to join the ranks." It looked like Serg was going to go down swinging, not a smart decision. Geoffrey was much harder on his subordinates than Rex had been. There had been more than a few changes in staff when Geoffrey had become General. While there hadn't been any dramatic switches in over sixteen years the replacement of Serg wouldn't be anything that raised concern.

"The way I see it Serg, you can either give Kaiser clearance or find yourself a new job." With Geoffrey that wasn't a threat it was a promise and Serg knew it. You could see the Drill Sergeant swallow his pride as he nodded in agreement.

"Alright Verus," Serg grumbled, "You'll have your squad number within the week."

"Oh that won't be necessary," Geoffrey said walking over to Kaiser and placing his hand on the teen's shoulder. "I think Kaiser here will work perfectly for a little team I'm putting together."

_Two months later. _

Kaiser walked up the southwestern tower towards Geoffrey's office. He had something that he needed to ask the General. As one of Geoffrey's personal knights Kaiser had access to privileged information. While going through some travel logs for the deployed squads Kaiser had come across what appeared to be a journal. Officially the troops were out looking for a young girl with destructive potential. The journal kept referring to the objective as a creature though. Kaiser knew that the creature was the girl due to the dates and the travel logs seemed to be reflected within the journal marking where the creature wasn't. What got to Kaiser was the dates that appeared sporadically. Each date that appeared before the troop list had a town written next to it. Some of the towns Kaiser had never heard of, other he knew people from that town. The thing he couldn't figure out was _why _those towns were listed in the journal. When he looked at the name on the front cover, something he realized he should have done first, he found that it belonged to Zarr, Geoffrey's assistant.

At first Kaiser had been more than annoyed and almost flat out refused to work for Geoffrey when he found out he was going to be doing deskwork. Other members of the team were doing desk work also but they had been sent out on missions and come back with scars to prove it. Whatever Geoffrey was sending them out to do was dangerous and Kaiser relished the challenge. That had been until he had discovered Zerr's journal and the cryptic things it hinted at. Zerr was a small old man with a weak heart and almost no hair left on his head. He scared easily and was quick to apologize. Kaiser may have a small rivalry with his brother but that didn't mean he wanted him to be put in harm's way. Why the General would send Shin out to fight a creature and only told him it was a girl with destructive power pestered Kaiser to no end. Both his father and Shin had told Kaiser that in war information was key. While this wasn't exactly war Kaiser couldn't believe that his father's successor would so blatantly give false information.

The closer Kaiser got to the top of the tower, a really bad place in his opinion to have a General's office, the more doubt he started to feel about the mission Shin had been sent on. With each stepped he climbed the worse the feeling got. By the time he had reached the door Kaiser felt certain that something was going on with this mission that he shouldn't know about. That raised the point then that he couldn't very well go and directly ask Geoffrey about it. If Kaiser really wasn't supposed to know about the truth of the mission then he could easily be hunted down and put in prison to keep him from leaking any of the story, that is if he wasn't outright killed. Spies and informants for other countries were dealt with swiftly and without mercy. Having sensitive information would quickly put Kaiser into the category to prevent and suspicion being raised about his death. Being caught like that would no doubt end up affecting his family to. Rex got paid a small amount each month for having paid his due to the Kingdom which they would quickly cut off if Kaiser was branded a traitor. Shin would lose his position in the military leaving him jobless and their family couldn't afford to lose all of their income like that. They had bills that _needed _to be paid.

While he stood at the top of the stairs Kaiser could hear voices coming from inside the room. Geoffrey's recognizable voice cut through the solid oak door with ease once Kaiser started to focus on the words. The other voice, which sounded like Zerr, was softer and hard to make out, Kaiser was only catching every other word. They were talking about the mission that shin and the other squads were on. From the volume of Geoffrey's voice he wasn't pleased with whatever it was that Zerr had just told him.

"Why haven't they found the bitch yet Zerr?!" Geoffrey shouted. The sound of a chair or other wooden object being toppled echoed out of the room. It was a sneaky trick but Kaiser knew that he needed to listen in. Since he couldn't confront anyone about this he had to get the information somehow and this seemed to be the best way to do it. "How hard can it be to find a beast that destroyed an entire town in a single night!?"

"I do not know Lord Geoffrey," Zerr whined.

"You would think our Court Mages would be able to sense that kind of power when it came out. How many towns have shared Narshe's fate?" Even through the door Kaiser could feel the hatred that Geoffrey was expelling. Kaiser tried to wrack his brains and see if he could remember anything about a town called Narshe. The only thing he could remember is that it was one to the magicite mines within the Kingdom's control. It had stopped operating for a while back when Kaiser was about five years old. He couldn't remember _why _it had stopped though. Whatever the reason was it was linked to whatever Geoffrey was mad about.

"My Lord, I know that you wish to have the girl brought to you but I still fail to see the reason behind such an action. If she has the tremendous power then why put so many innocent lives on the line?" Zerr questioned. It was the most backbone that Kaiser had ever heard Zerr display.

"Because I'm going to kill her myself. I only told the King that we could use her power so I could have the army sent out to capture her. Nothing can control that girl's power." Geoffrey had calmed down some since his last outburst but there was still a clear tone of anger in his voice. This girl had really done something that rubbed the General the wrong way.

"But Sir, surely we could weaponize her somehow. I hear that the Archadian Empire is working on a magic that influences the mind. If we could get a hold of their research I'm sure our mages would be able to find a way to use it on the girl." Zerr going up against Geoffrey, or anyone for that matter, twice didn't fit with Kaiser's image of the man.

"She doesn't deserve to live, even a half life under our command Zerr." Geoffrey was practically growling with anger. "Don't forget that we have _that _at our disposal. Even her power pales in comparison to the power we can extract from _it_." Kaiser wished that the General wouldn't be so vague right now. He needed information because as far as he knew the Kingdom didn't have any secret weapon at their beck and call. If they did then they were doing a damn good job of keeping it hidden. It didn't fit the King's style though. If they really did have some powerful weapon that was worse than the creature Shin had been sent to capture then the King would be bragging about it. He very much enjoyed letting the world know just how powerful the Kingdom was.

"Even still Sir, she would make a fine collection to our army." Zerr started to laugh but it quickly turned into wheezing and coughing, he was too old to get a good laugh going.

"You do have a point Zerr I will admit to that. I cannot forgive her for what happened at Narshe and countless other towns all over the world. Who knows how many she has hit these past thirteen years." Some of the anger had left Geoffrey's voice and been replaced with sadness. "Too many lives have been lost to let this _thing_ live." So much venom had been in the word "thing". Geoffrey couldn't decide whether whatever the army was searching for was a girl or a creature that seemed to come from the darkest pits of hell. Either way Kaiser had heard enough, girl or monster, Shin wasn't going to be able to deal with it outfitted with only military issued weapons. Luckily the Verus family had a set of unique weapons for each of its members.

Making sure to take the first few steps quietly so as not to alert the men behind the door Kaiser rushed down the stairs and headed for his home. He ran into no obstacles on his way to his house. The Verus home was nothing special, just an average sized roof-tiled house. Dashing inside Kaiser noticed that his father wasn't home. Thinking about what day it was Kaiser knew exactly where his father would be, if he didn't have things to do he'd be there right alongside his father. Rushing into his own room Kaiser pulled out a small chest from underneath his bed. Inside were his own personal duel blades waiting for their master's hands. Before heading to Shin's room to grab his brother's greatsword Kaiser stopped at his dresser. Sitting on top of the wooden furniture was a silver bracelet. It was done so that the metal looked like scales and it shimmered in the sunlight. Kaiser kept good care of this particular item for it had once belonged to his mother. You could tell by looking at it that the item was too small for Kaiser to wear, his wrists too large to fit the accessory on. Not knowing when he was going to be back Kaiser slid the bracelet onto his belt, this way no matter where he went a piece of his mother would always be with him.

"Now to find Shin," Kaiser said to himself determinedly. Thankfully Shin was a Captain in the army and wore a special cape. Technically only the Court Mages were supposed to be able to track the capes but Kaiser had long since learned the trace spell. Casting the spell he could see a mental map of the Kingdom, there was a glowing silver dot on the map that represented where Shin was at. After writing a quick note to explain to his father where he was headed Kaiser set off to go and aid his brother. Shin needed to know what Geoffrey had been talking about back there.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter VII

Rin watched as the light emitting from Mika started to fade away. Once again torches were the only source of light in the night. Orange flames cast their light over the blonde girl that now stood in dark purple, almost black, armor. It was hard to see in only the light of a few fires but Rin could make see that the armor covered Mika from the neck down. A faded red gem sat in the center of the armor's chest, the shoulders were the same red as the gem with black veins. From elbow to shoulder Mika had no armor leaving her tanned skin exposed. At her waist the armor no longer clung to her body, it instead curved out a little and extended down to just past her knees. Mika's upper leg, from waist to knee wasn't covered in armor but black leather that looked just as strong as the dark armor she wore. What caught everyone's attention wasn't the new armor but what was on the back of the armor. Mika had two large black wings with a white-green membrane, both wings moved back and forth as if they were ready to haul the body into the sky at any moment.

_I can't believe it, Mika is the Dark Dragoon. _Rin could only stare at the woman in front of her that exuded power. Even Mika's steel staff had taken on the purple coloring and look of the armor. Neither the armor nor the staff looked to be made of any metal that was produced naturally. It was as if someone had melted down dragonscales and turned them into a metal.

There was a fire in Mika's eyes as she looked at the soldiers that had caught up to them. It was the Dragoon's insanity coupled with the sudden burst of power. Rin watched as Mika leapt forward, her feet no longer touching the ground, and slammed into the soldier that had leapt in front of them. Dark energy could be seen coming off the staff as it collided into the soldier. Before the soldier's torch hit the ground Mika had moved onto the next opponent and was already slamming her staff into his side. The speed at which Mika moved was astounding. None of the Gestaltian soldiers were able to defend against the Dark Dragoon as she annihilated them.

_To think that she's one of the eight Dragoons of legend, I have to take her to the High Priestess right away. If the Dragoons are awakening it can only mean Endiness is in need of their power. _As she watched Mika lay waste to the Gestaltian soldiers Rin found that she was scared more than anything. The quiet life she had lead in Clestia was at an end, in fact the peaceful life of Endiness was coming to an end.

"What's happened to her?" Sol asked as he too watched his sister fly from soldier to soldier.

Rin kept her mouth shut. While she knew what had happened to Mika it'd be best to wait and explain things all at once to the both of them. Right now she had to figure out what she was going to do. Going to the High Priestess was her goal but getting to her wasn't exactly just a hop skip and a jump away. They would have to cross a large portion of enemy territory that seemed to be on a hunt for someone matching Mika's description. Rin could only pray that the Gestaltian Kingdom didn't know what Mika was and that the soldiers had been mistaken in taking her.

With the power of the Dark Dragon flowing through her Mika made quick work of the unprepared soldiers. Still the rest of the troop was catching up to them since they had stopped to deal with the few that had managed to reach them. Rin could see that Mika was starting to tire, the strain of the transformation starting to take its toll on her. Nocking an arrow Rin took aim at the approaching men who had yet to put on their armor leaving their bodies wide open. Each arrow Rin let loose found its way into the flesh on one man or another. Only three of the men, ones who had bothered to put on armor, had made their way to Mika. They did their best to surround her but Rin wasn't going to let them team up on her. Dropping her bow Rin took out her knife and tackled the soldier closest to her. When Rin saw the face of the man she had tackled she thanked the heavens for giving her _this _particular one. It was the same soldier that had insulted Mika.

"Who's the bitch now?" Rin asked him before she stabbed him in the shoulder. Any answer the guy may have been going to give was cut off by his scream. Ripping the knife out flipped it around and brought the blade cleanly across his neck ending his life before he knew what had happened. Hopping up to see if there were any other soldiers Rin had gotten up in time to see Mika's armor vanish. No longer supported by the power of a dragon Mika swayed back and forth a bit before falling. Rin had barely started running to Mika before Sol was there to catch his sister. Rin went and picked up one of the torches, all had been extinguished by the force of Mika's power, and held it out to Sol who lit it with a snap of his fingers. Without any magic to call on and no other way to light it herself Rin needed Sol to do it.

"Where to Rin?" Sol asked as he shifted Mika in his arms.

"We left the road when we ran from the camp. We'll need to head back and follow it to a town." Rin looked back in the direction that they had all just come from. She hadn't counted the number of soldiers that had chased after them but she had a feeling that a few of them were still around. If they did run into any of them it was going to be up to her to stick an arrow in them before they got near. There was no telling when Mika would wake up and even when did, she'd be too drained to fight.

With Sol caring his sister they headed back to the camp they had just escaped from. Rin was still on edge waiting for someone to come out of the shadows and attack them. Nothing happened while they were at the camp though. Sol set Mika down and together he and Rin set about looting the camp for what supplies they could take with them. They didn't find much other than trail food, some hard biscuits and dried meat, and measly amount of gold. Rin was thankful when she noticed that another quiver in one of the tents, she restocked her supply before they headed to the road.

"Sol, I promise to explain everything once we get to a town," Rin said as she looked over at him her eyes pleading with him to leave it all alone for now. Sol just nodded he knew that they needed to get moving so they could find a safer place. "Though uh Sol, can I borrow your lab coat? It's a bit chilly." The remains of Rin's skirt fluttered in the night breeze showing off her legs and a bit more. Rin swore she saw Sol's shoulders move up and down as if he was laughing at her. He took off his coat and offered to Rin who promptly tied it around her waist. The front of her skirt was mostly intact but the back of it had suffered greatly.

-o-O-o-

By the time morning arrived Mika was awake but still too weak to walk so Sol carried her on his back. The walk down the road was filled with awkward silence. Both Sol and Mika wanted to ask what was going on and what had happened back there but they knew that Rin wasn't going to tell them anything until she felt they were in a safe place. Rin used the silence to organize her thoughts and figure out how she was going to explain everything to them once they reached a town. What she planned to tell them was among her closest guarded secrets. Much to Rin's dismay they came to a town not long after noon. While the town was large enough to require more than three inns to support the amount of travelers passing through Rin could only manage to find two and one of them was packed already. The other inn only had one room available for rent and it was going to eat up the majority of the gold they had stolen from the campsite. Still Rin paid for the room knowing that she couldn't put it off any longer. She had to tell Mika and Sol just what was happening to them.

The inn was in desperate need of repairs and Rin thought for sure that her weight was going to be enough to cause the floorboards to give way. Unspeakable noises came from the rooms the trio passed as they headed towards the room at the end of the hall. Each door had a number painted on it, though the paint was so badly faded you could barely make it out, and their room was number thirteen. Rin was slightly superstitious and wished they could have had any other numbered room but there was no such luck. Opening the door to the room they found it had only one bed in it pushed against the far wall right under the small window. There was a small nightstand where a magicite lamp sat and other than those two things the room was empty. Mika still wasn't feeling her best so she laid down on the bed with Rin sitting on the edge. Without so much as a chair to sit in Sol sat down cross legged and felt a bead of sweat trickle down his neck as the boards groaned under the weight. The two siblings looked at Rin expectantly for a few moments before she let out a deep sigh.

"Alright. First Mika, I need to know how you got this stone." Rin held up the purple-black stone that had shone last night in Mika's pocket.

"Our mom gave it to me," Mika said sadly. While Rin knew that Mika's parents were dead it wasn't something that she talked about. Both Sol and Mika kept quiet about the death of their parents and Rin had enough sense not to pry and let them talk to her when they felt like it. "Our too many greats to count grandfather found it inside a fish they said. He was out fishing near Fueno and he landed this large fish. When he gutted it he found the stone inside."

"According to dad it's been used as the equivalent of a wedding ring ever since," Sol added. "It goes to the oldest child and has been passed down that way ever since."

"As I'm sure you two have figured out by now it's more than just a pretty rock." Sol and Mika gave Rin the "no duh" look before letting her continue. "It's… well, it's a dragon spirit. There are only eight in the world, one for each element and one non-elemental. This one is the Dark Dragon Spirit. When it recognizes its partner it's able to transform them into a Dragoon. That's what happened to you Mika, the spirit recognizes you and gave you the power to change into the Dark Dragoon of legend."

Mika sat up in her bed, there was too much information for her to just lie down and listen. "So you're telling me, that the stone I've been carrying around for the past oh eight years or so is actually a dragon spirit?"

"Yes and unlike the other spirits the Dark Dragon has only ever had one partner." Rin smiled at Mika trying to make her feel more at ease.

"But wait. Didn't the first Dragoons appear during the Dragon Campaign over 14,000 years ago? After that the legends say the next set appeared only 3,500 years ago. How can a person live for 11,000 years?"

"Her name was lost to the ages but we know that she was given a magical choker that allowed her to live that long. For what reason she was given it or where the item came from are a mystery to us."

"You keep saying 'we'," Mika pointed out. "Rin, who's we?

"Mika sweetie." Rin picked up Mika's hand and held it on both of her own. "Remember how when we first met in Clestia? I was looking for magicite researcher to help me with an experiment. I was looking for you in particular. I, I belong to an organization that's done their best to keep track of the eight dragon spirits. We knew you had one so I was sent to keep an eye on both the spirit and you."

"So it wasn't just a chance meeting then. Can't say that doesn't hurt a bit." Mika placed her other hand on Rin's. "Even if us meeting was arranged by this organization it doesn't change how I feel about you Rin. So you didn't tell me that you're working for a secret group of people that are keeping track of mystical objects. I've been keeping a secret from you, I dye my hair."

Rin pushed Mika over, turned away, and folded her arms over her chest with a huff. "I'm being serious here Mika!"

"Sorry Rin. I just don't know what to say right now." Mika looked like she genuinely felt sorry for what she had done. "I'm learning that I'm apparently something called a Dragoon all of the sudden."

"And it only gets worse," Rin sighed. "The Dragoons only appear when Endiness is in trouble. With the Dark Dragoon awake we can expect some threat to the world."

"You mean that Mika's going to be fighting for the sake of the world?" Sol asked in disbelief. A very awkward silence fell over the room. Mika wasn't exactly the save-the-world type of girl and they all knew it. She was more the let's-party-and-have-some-fun type girl.

"You're joking right Rin?" Mika asked clearly hopeful that this was all a dream or a very bad joke.

"I wish I was. The organization that I work for," Rin started because she saw Sol open his mouth to ask the question, "is called The Church of the Harmonious One. There's one church on each continent and the one here is in the Gestaltian Kingdom. We need to head there, the High Priestess will be able to help you Mika."

"Brother have you heard of that?" Mika looked at him with curiosity on her face. Sol was far more interested in the general knowledge of the world than Mika was and read up on the happenings of the world. Still Sol shook his head no. "So what's the Church of the Harmonious one?"

"Sol, you know about the appearance of the second set of Dragoons. Tell me what you know about that first," Rin instructed.

"Not much really. I only know that there were seven of them they have something to do with the legend about The Moon That Never Sets. Stories of each Dragoon were kept secret it seems, their names never written down." Sol looked more than a little confused about why Rin was asking him that.

"The Dragoons fought to protect the world from that Moon. It was part of the 108th fruit meant to destroy the world. As you can see now, the Moon is gone and we had all thought everything was fine. It's not though. The High Priestess will be able to tell you more once we reach her." Try as she might Rin couldn't help but smile as she thought of heading back to the church and seeing her old friends. It had been six years since she had left the church to go out and see the world.

"How are we going to get to this church? We spent all our money on this room and as good as it looks on you Rin I don't think you want to run around with Brother's coat tied around your waist." Mika tugged on the lab coat that Rin was still using to cover herself to drive home the point. Rin's cheeks went pink as she swatted Mika's hand away.

"You're right though, we're going to need some gold." Rin pulled her knife out linked her ring finger through the hole in the pommel. Rotating her finger ninety degrees she pulled it out transforming the pommel into a ring. A dove was carved onto the top of the ring. "The church may be secret but we do happen have an account with a few money lenders around the world. Sol you'll need to take this ring to the Setzer Money Lender in town and hope it has money." While Setzer Money Lenders were all over the world they weren't very reliable on stocking gold as their founder was a bit of a gambler and used the business to fund his habit. "Withdraw enough gold to buy some supplies; arrows, food, clothes, potions, and tonics. You know travel items. Most importantly, a new skirt please."

"How am I supposed to buy you a skirt?" Sol questioned feeling awkward at the thought of going into a tailor's for women's clothing. "I wouldn't know what size to get or anything."

"Please Sol," Rin pleaded, "I know you can figure it out. Most tailors have some stock marked with sizes and I'm sure you can figure it out. If we sent Mika she'd mess it up."

"I could do it," Mika said angrily.

"Sweetie," Rin patted Mika on the leg, "you can do a lot of things but when it comes to shopping for clothes, you pick all the wrong things. Colors, sizes, cut, anything that can go wrong you seem to have a knack for finding."

"You do realize that it's going to be awkward as all anything for me to buy a skirt right?" Sol tried to wiggle his way out of doing it. In all fairness he wasn't any better than his sister when it came to picking out clothes. If it wasn't for Rin they'd both be running around in quite the atrocious attire.

"And it's not awkward running around with a coat tied around my waist to cover my backside?!" Rin shouted tossing the ring at Sol who barely managed to catch it. "Be a man and by me a skirt. Tell the salesmen you're an errand boy for all I care just get me a skirt." Rin got up off the bed and grabbed Sol's shoulder using it to pull him up. He was only about three-quarters of the way up when Rin's hand was already above her head still she kept her grip till he was standing upright. Turning him around Rin pushed Sol towards the door leaving him to either reach out and open it or get slammed face first into it, Sol chose the former. "Blue if you don't mind," Rin said before pushing Sol out of the room and slamming the door behind him.

Sol stood outside the closed door and debated if he should just turn around and head back in or give into the blue haired she-devil. This time he picked the latter. His sister was in need of recovery and her having to listen to him and Rin argue. Pocketing the ring she had tossed at him Sol headed out into the city to find the money lender and stock up on supplies before they had to leave. He only hoped that no one would give him trouble for buying womens clothing.

-o-O-o-

A woman wearing a shin-length pink dress with buttons up with the front and a red bolero jacket walked briskly down a corridor within the mountain known as Bur-Omisace. She wore brown boots and metal bracers on her wrists and around the edges of her jacket sleeves. Her hair drawn back in a thick plait with a large pink ribbon, Aerith Gainsborough was never seen without that pink ribbon. Bur-Omisace was a large mountain able to hold a small city's worth of people should it need to. Outside you would only be able to see a single building, the Temple of Harmony. It was a grand structure that looked like a castle sitting atop a mountain peak. Inside the temple was a staircase that led down into the mountain where homes and shops were set up for the few that lived here. Aerith was the leader of the city, as High Priestess of the Church of the Harmonious One it was her job to look after the people the Goddess sent to the mountain.

Today Aerith found herself heading to the infirmary. Cloud had really gotten hurt protecting the mountain from a pack of Mountain Apes. One of the Apes had managed to snap the bone in his lower leg and if it wasn't for Zack he probably would have died. Sadly Zack too had suffered serious injury at the hands of the Apes but had managed to kill the alpha male and scare away the others before getting killed himself. Zack had gotten clawed down the back but still managed to carry Cloud back to the temple in time for them to get treatment before passing out from pain or blood loss. Zack and Cloud were two of her best friends so when they were brought to the infirmary a nurse was sent out to find Aerith. There were many capable healers in the mountain city but few could come close to the power that Aerith had. The severity of their wounds was more than enough to warrant calling Aerith in to heal them rather than one of the other city's healers.

Walking into the infirmary Aerith spotted her two friends on beds with nurses flocked around them. There was one girl sitting in a chair next to Zack's bed that wasn't in the white nurses' outfit. She had on white shirt underneath a dark chocolate colored jacket with only the top two buttons undone. While Aerith could only see her torso she would have laid money on the fact the woman was wearing black pants and shoes. The woman's red hair was wavy and fell down to her shoulders. Brown eyes looked down at Zack with concern. Even though it was her day off Cissnei still dressed more formally instead of for looks or fun. Despite the many nurses crowding Zack, only about a third of them actually taking care of him, Cissnei didn't seem affected by them in the least. It wasn't official but many of the girls in the city considered Cissnei Zack's girlfriend with how much time they spent together and so they considered her a rival. Those that didn't think Zack and Cissnei were a couple seemed to think Aerith was the rival for the spiky haired man's love. Yes, it was love triangle plus a few dozen other single girls.

Aerith approached Zack's bed and all the nurses scattered to the four winds. That is to say they headed over to Cloud's bed, the blonde chocobo haired warrior was awake unlike Zack and trying to tell the nurses that he was alright. Zack was lying on his stomach, completely shirtless, and Aerith took a deep breath when she saw the claw marks on Zacks back. The claws had went deep and there was a lot of bloody rags on the tray next to the bed. Some of the working nurses had actually managed to close up the wounds enough that Zack's life wasn't in immediate danger anymore but he still wasn't in the clear, even his normally black spiky hair had lost some of its luster and spikiness as if to say the man wasn't feeling well. Aerith wasn't sure if she should be happy that Zack was out cold or not. Placing her hands over the claw marks Aerith started to chant stringing various healing spells together. White light poured out from Aerith's hands and over the claw marks. It was a long process but Aerith stood there using her magic to knit flesh back together, urge muscle to grow, veins to form, and blood to flow. It was a bit more complicated than that as Aerith had to make sure that she was having the body repair itself in the correct order and the correct way.

When Aerith felt like she had done enough for Zack to be safe she stopped the flow of magic, she had to remember to save her energy for Cloud and any other people that may need her healing magic. Walking over to check on Cloud, Aerith could hear Zack start to stir in his bed. A wave of relief washed over her, Zack was a strong guy and could take a hit but even he had his limits on what he could survive. Aerith felt a slight sting of jealousy though when she heard Cissnei start talking softly to Zack. Ignoring the feeling Aerith looked at Cloud's broken leg, it was patched up well enough by the healers that it didn't require any attention from Aerith. Cloud's pride was probably hurting more than his leg at the moment.

"Aren't you a sight for sore eyes Eala," Aerith heard Zack say. Turning around to see who this "Eala" girl was Aerith saw no one other than Cissnei next to Zack. It seemed that with no real reason to approach him none of the nurses wanted to try and get between him and Cissnei. Zack's head was resting on his pillow still but he had turned so he was looking directly at Cissnei. "You know Eala, you really should add some brighter colors to your wardrobe, you'd look really beautiful then." Aerith just shook her head, even right out of unconsciousness Zack had the energy to flirt.

"Zack I told you not to call me that in public," Cissnei scolded the injured warrior. It probably would have been more convincing if Cissnei's cheeks hadn't turned pink at "beautiful". Aerith wondered if Eala was Cissnei's real name, she knew that the red head's real name wasn't Cissnei, that was just the name she gave people. Cissnei was one of the Church's spies; Aerith had taken the role of High Priestess only two years ago. Most of the staff, soldiers, and spies were people the last High Priestess had hired so Aerith didn't know everything about them like she wanted.

"Come Eala, it's a pretty name," Zack whined. Aerith didn't even have to see Zack's face to know that his big blue eyes had gone into puppy dog mode. No doubt he was pouting at while he looked up at Cissnei. It was the kind of look that could melt the ice around even the coldest of hearts. "So does this," Zack pointed to his mostly healed back, "finally get me a date?"

"Call me Cissnei in public and we'll see," the red haired woman folded her arms.

"That's not fair, you real name's way better," Zack huffed. Cissnei smiled and ruffled Zack's spiky hair.

"Alright fine, it gets you one date," Cissnei conceded. Aerith stifled a giggle behind her hand as she make a victory sign behind his back. She wasn't sure if the sign was meant for her or for Cloud but the level of excitement Zack almost always had was contagious. Heading back over to the the blossoming couple Aerith moved into Zack's line of vision.

"Hey doc," Zack joked with a grin on his face. Aerith found herself smiling back even though she was sad that Zack had actually gotten a date with Cissnei. The blue eyed warrior had been trying a few times to get Cissnei out on a date and each time she had shot him down. Aerith hadn't know it'd be as painful as it was when she finally heard Cissnei agree. "So how's it look? Will I be back out protecting the city within the week? Heroes can't afford to rest."

"Well Mr. Hero," Aerith joked back, "you won't be slaying monsters within the week. It'll take at least two with physical therapy to get you back in shape. That's _after _staying in bed for a few days to make sure the wounds don't reopen." While magic could be used to knit flesh there was always the chance that something had gone wrong in the process. While the number of times magic had failed were small anyone that had been magically healed had to stay in the infirmary for a few days. All instances of magical failure happened within four days of the first healing session.

Aerith explained to Zack what it was going to take before he was going to be allowed back out as one of the city's soldiers. While he didn't seem happy with the fact that he was going to have to sit still for so long he did understand the reason. No longer being needed and feeling like a third wheel Aerith decided she would head back to her room to rest. Some might think that being the High Priestess of a church that Aerith would have some grand room to live in. She had the bare necessities in her room. As the leader of the church she was expected to set an example for the others which apparently meant living like an impoverished person.

The room was originally decorated in white. Bedding, curtains, chair, etc. if it could be colored white it was. When Aerith had be appointed High Priestess after the death of the last she had kept the white for over a year in memory of her predecessor. Now though Aerith had started to add her own color to the room. The white curtains had been the first thing to go, replaced with a set of pink curtains. The window was one of the luxuries of being so high ranked within the church. Most people lived down in the mountain while Aerith got to live up in the temple where she could look out at the world below her. At first she had been afraid of the sky having spent her entire life under rock. After the curtains Aerith had replaced the blankets of the bed with a baby blue colored set instead, leaving the sheets white. Her white painted wooden chair and desk had been replaced with unpainted versions.

Kneeling on the floor next to her bed Aerith started a silent prayer like she did every time before falling asleep. One didn't become the leader of a church without being devout after all. Aerith did her normal prayers, asking for protection of the people and world, the normal things you would think people with good hearts pray for. Then with a twist at the end Aerith did something she normally didn't do, she prayed for something selfish:

"Please Lady of Harmony, give me the courage to continue as High Priestess. I don't know how much longer I can continue watching over the world as it passes us by. Cosmos, Goddess of Harmony, give us a sign that what we are preparing for may one day come to pass and these people can return to a normal life."

**Character Corner:**

Aerith Gainsborough

Game: Final Fantasy VII

As the High Priestess of the Church of Harmony Aerith has a demanding job. She doesn't let the effects show though as the people would lose their spirit. There are secrets she knows that will end up changing the course of the world. Aerith waits for the day that she can pass these secrets on to their intended recipients and start to lead the people of Bur-Omisace to peace.

Zack Fair

Game: Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII

One of the leaders of Bur-Omisace's small military force. Zack strives to be a hero and protect the city from the monsters of the surrounding area. Friend to all those he meets Zack has a positive outlook on life and takes time to enjoy the small things in life. A bit of a flirt, this spiky haired soldier has a heart of gold. As of right now there are two women fighting over that heart, though he doesn't know it.

Eala "Cissnei"

Game: Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII

Cissnei to all but Zack this red head follows the rules to the letter. She's by the book in all she does. She has few friends outside of her job as the leader of the Church's spy network. Coming across as cold to most Cissnei cares for her students and those she sends out into danger. There's a past to her that she wishes to remain a secret.


End file.
